What is the average number of beds in a U.S. hospital?

There are more than 7,300 hospitals in the U.S., ranging in size from facilities with just a few total staffed beds to the largest hospitals with thousands of beds.

In this Healthcare Insight, we review data from the Definitive Healthcare HospitalView product to learn the average number of beds in a hospital and how hospitals compare by location and type. Staffed bed data is sourced from the Medicare Cost Report and aggregated from the most recent 12-month interval tracked in our database.

What is the average number of beds in a hospital?

The average number of total staffed beds for hospitals is 130 beds, according to HospitalView.

The chart below shows the distribution of hospitals by their bed size range. Nearly one-third of hospitals have between 26 and 100 beds. Another 27% of hospitals have 25 or fewer beds, including more than 1,300 critical access hospitals. One-quarter of hospitals have 101 to 250 beds, while only about 15% have more than 250 beds.

U.S. hospitals by bed size range

Fig. 1 Data is from the Definitive Healthcare HospitalView product and sourced from the April 2023 Medicare Cost Report release. Accessed May 2023.

Which states in America have the lowest number of hospital beds?

Hospitals in Montana and South Dakota have the lowest average number of beds, with 48 and 49 beds, respectively.

How does hospital bed size differ by location?

Hospitals in the northeastern U.S. have the highest average number of beds at 179 beds. Cities such as New York and Boston tend to have larger hospitals. Even across the state of Massachusetts, hospitals average 176 beds.

In comparison, critical access hospitals, which have to have 25 or fewer inpatient beds, are concentrated in the Midwest and likely contributed to the region’s lower average hospital bed size.

Average bed size by U.S. region

Fig. 2 Data is from the Definitive Healthcare HospitalView product and sourced from the April 2023 Medicare Cost Report release. Accessed May 2023.

How does hospital bed size differ by hospital type?

Short-term acute care hospitals have the highest average number of beds at 186. They are the most common type of hospital in the U.S. and make up more than 50% of U.S. hospitals. Children’s hospitals have 181 beds on average and VA hospitals average 175 beds.

Average bed size by hospital type

Fig. 3 Data is from the Definitive Healthcare HospitalView product and sourced from the April 2023 Medicare Cost Report release. Accessed May 2023.

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