Hospital beds in Spain in 2021, by autonomous community

In 2021, Catalonia was the autonomous community with the highest number of hospital beds in Spain, with around 34.5 thousand. Andalusia, the most populated region in the country, followed with 21.8 thousand beds, a significantly lower figure. Nevertheless, when considering only beds belonging to public hospitals, Andalusia was on top of the list in 2019. Catalonia, on the other hand, had a very high number of private hospital beds, which accounted for more than half of the total amount that year.

Health expenditure and hospital beds

Both public and private healthcare expenditure have grown steadily in the last years. Public spending on healthcare reached 77.4 billion euros in 2018, almost 11 billion more than in 2013, when government health expenditure was at its lowest point. Private healthcare spending also showed an upward trend, increasing from 24.6 billion in 2009 to 32.5 billion in 2018. Even so, the number of beds in hospitals presented a slight decline up until 2021, when the country had approximately 158.5 thousand beds at its disposal, nearly 2.5 thousand fewer than in 2010.

Hospital reputation in Spain

In 2020, the public Spanish hospital with the best corporate reputation was La Paz, located in the Community of Madrid. According to the Monitor of Company Reputation (Merco), this center achieved a rating of 10,000 points. As for private hospitals, the Clínica Universidad de Navarra, with branches in the northern city of Pamplona and Madrid, ranked first on the list. The total number of hospitals in Spain stood at 831 in 2020, 342 of which were publicly-owned hospitals.