Number of hospital beds in Sweden 2009-2020, by sector

The number of hospital beds in Sweden decreased since year 2000. There were around 31.8 thousand hospital beds in Sweden in 2000, and in 2019, there were around 21.3 thousand hospital beds. During these years, the majority of the hospital beds were in public sector-owned hospitals.  

Public and private hospital beds

       The number of hospital beds in the public sector generally decreased during the period from 2009 to 2019, and in 2020 there were 2.0 per thousand inhabitants. The number of private hospital beds increased in 2012, and stayed at 0.2 beds per thousand inhabitants from 2012 to 2020.    

Hospital beds in Denmark showed similar trend

        Sweden’s neighboring country Denmark basically followed the same pattern in the number of hospital beds. The hospital beds in Denmark generally decreased during the period, from almost 23 thousand beds in 2000 to around an estimated 15 thousand in 2019.