Number of community hospitals in the U.S. 1999-2022, by ownership

In 2022, there were 5,129 community hospitals (general acute care) in the United States. The largest portion of these hospitals were non-profit, while only around 24 percent were for-profit. In recent years, there has been a decrease in the number of hospitals in the U.S. It is difficult to compare data from before 2017 due to methodology differences. However, the general trend is downwards, with the exception of for-profit hospitals. There has been an increase in for-profit community hospitals in the last two decades.

Hospital beds

There are currently around 916,752 hospital beds in the U.S. Unsurprisingly, just as the number of hospitals in the U.S. has decreased in recent years, so has the number of hospital beds. In 1995, there were still over one million hospital beds. In 2019, large hospitals, those with 500 or more beds, had a combined 248 thousand beds available.

Hospital stays

In 2019, around 7.3 percent of the U.S. population reported one or more hospitals stays in the past year. Hospital stays are more common among females than males, however both genders have seen decreasing rates in hospital stays in the past few years. The average length of stay in U.S. hospitals is 5.7 days.