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Healthcare Insights

Top 10 largest Canadian hospitals

The Canadian healthcare system has been publicly funded since 1984. Canadian citizens have access to universal coverage for necessary healthcare services, with patients paying out-of-pocket or purchasing supplemental coverage for prescription medications, and for vision and dental care.

These and other characteristics make it difficult for U.S.-based companies to understand exactly how to approach the Canadian healthcare market.

Currently, Definitive Healthcare provides healthcare commercial intelligence on more than 123 Canadian health systems. These health systems operate 774 active Canadian hospitals across the country’s 10 provinces, helping provide critical healthcare services to the people of Canada.

Below, we’ve compiled a list of the top 10 largest Canadian hospitals by number of beds.

Top 10 Canadian hospitals by number of staffed beds

RankHospital nameDefinitive IDCityProvinceNumber of bedsExplore dataset
1Hamilton General Hospital839795HamiltonON 1,373 Explore
2The Ottawa Hospital - Civic Campus840012OttawaON 1,170 Explore
3Vancouver General Hospital585714VancouverBC 1,013 Explore
4Foothills Medical Centre586129CalgaryAB 1,008 Explore
5Centennial Building - Queen Elizabeth II (FKA Victoria Building - Queen Elizabeth II)585853HalifaxNS 1,004 Explore
6Hôtel-Dieu de Sherbrooke775729SherbrookeQC 1,003 Explore
7Royal University Hospital586088SaskatoonSK 888 Explore
8University of Alberta Hospital586182EdmontonAB 855 Explore
9Oshawa Hospital585965OshawaON 845 Explore
10Royal Alexandra Hospital586180EdmontonAB 802 Explore

Fig. 1 Analysis of data from the Definitive Healthcare InternationalView product. Data accessed July 2025.

What is the largest hospital in Canada?

Hamilton General Hospital tops our list with 1,373 beds, followed by The Ottawa Hospital - Civic Campus, with 1,170 beds. In a close third is Vancouver General Hospital, with 1,013 beds. Hamilton General Hospital and The Ottawa Hospital - Civic Campus are both in Ontario, while Vancouver General Hospital is in British Columbia.

Hamilton, Ottawa, and Vancouver are the 9th, 6th, and 3rd largest cities in Canada respectively. Generally, hospitals serving higher populations staff more beds to support greater patient volumes.

How do hospitals in Canada compare to hospitals in the U.S.?

Interestingly, the top hospitals in the U.S. by staffed beds have more hospital beds than the top hospitals in Canada. In fact, the U.S. hospital with the most beds—AdventHealth Orlando—has 48% more capacity, with 2,247 beds, compared to Hamilton General Hospital’s 1,373 beds.

What type of Canadian facilities does Definitive Healthcare track?

Definitive Healthcare tracks seven categories of Canadian Hospitals, including cancer treatment centers, chronic care facilities, rehabilitation hospitals, pediatric and psychiatric specialty hospitals, and more.

In our list above, most of the hospitals are “general hospitals”, meaning they offer inpatient care to patients across a variety of specialties, like the ones listed above. General hospitals typically treat a greater number of patients than specialty facilities and therefore require more beds to accommodate more patients receiving various types of care.

Learn more

Healthcare Insights are developed with healthcare data and analytics from the Definitive Healthcare platform. Want even more insights? Start a free trial now and get access to the latest intelligence on hospitals, physicians, and other healthcare providers.