Hospital beds per capita and average length of stays in the U.S. and USSR 1970-1988
Between 1970 and 1988, the number of hospital beds in the Soviet Union grew from 11 to 13 beds per 1,000 population, whereas it shrunk from 7.9 to five in the U.S.. This meant that the U.S. had roughly 70 percent the number of hospital beds per capita as the USSR in 1970, but less than 40 percent in 1988. Similarly, the average length of hospital stays in the U.S. was just over half of those in the USSR, although both of these rates declined steadily in these decades.