Hospital beds per 1,000 people, from the WHO, OECD, and World Bank. Bed capacity shapes how much care can shift to remote monitoring and hospital-at-home models, and varies more than tenfold between countries.
Inpatient bed capacity is a structural constraint on health systems and a recurring motivation for digital health. Remote monitoring, virtual wards, and hospital-at-home programmes are, in part, responses to limited and expensive beds. This indicator reports hospital beds per 1,000 people, compiled by Our World in Data from WHO, OECD, and World Bank data.
How to read it
Higher is not simply better: bed numbers reflect both need and the model of care. Some high-income countries have deliberately reduced bed counts as day-case surgery, community care, and remote monitoring have expanded, while others retain large inpatient sectors.
What it shows
Capacity varies by more than tenfold. Japan and South Korea report among the highest densities, above 12 beds per 1,000 people, reflecting long inpatient stays and a large private hospital sector, whereas many low- and middle-income countries report fewer than 1. The long-run trend in much of Western Europe has been downward, as care has moved out of hospitals.
Caveats
Definitions differ on whether to include curative, psychiatric, long-term, and private beds, and reporting years vary by country, so the series is best used to compare orders of magnitude and long-run direction rather than precise levels.