Latin America: number of hospitals 2020, by country

With more than 7.4 thousand medical centers, Brazil was the Latin American country with the highest number of hospitals in 2020, among the countries depicted. Mexico ranked second, with 3,396 hospitals. In 2019, Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein was the leading hospital by quality in the South American country.

Healthcare spending

With an estimated 13.3 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) being spent on health, Cuba was the nation with the highest health expenditure share in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2020. Placing second on this ranking, Brazil’s government also spent nearly 45 percent of its annual health expenditure on hospital and outpatient care. Meanwhile, in Chile, government spending on healthcare was, on average, about 1.28 thousand U.S. dollars per person in 2019, which was more than the combined health expenditure from government and out-of-pocket spending in Mexico.

Leading medical technology

Including products such as diagnostic imaging, implants, and vaccines, nanomedicine has by far been Latin America’s most valuable medical technology, generating an estimated 19.36 billion U.S. dollars in 2020. Furthermore, the revenue of nanomedicine in the region is expected to reach 32.81 billion U.S. dollars by 2025, representing an increase of more than 93 percent over a span of five years. Expansion is also forecasted for the second largest medical technology in Latin America, as the market for respiratory monitoring devices is expected to experience a compound annual growth of over 8.7 percent between 2016 and 2021.