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Community pharmacies per 100,000 population, 2021: 47
Hospital beds per 1,000 population, 2021: 3.0
Average length of stay in hospital, 2021: 7.5 days
Average number of in-person doctor consultations per person, 2021: 4.8
CT scanners per million population, 2021: 21
CT exams per 1,000 population, 2021: 134
MRI units per million population, 2021: 20
MRI exams per 1,000 population, 2021: 110
PET scanners per million population, 2021: 2
PET exams per 1,000 population, 2021: 6
Share of adults aged 65 and over receiving long-term care, 2021: 12.4%
Long-term care beds in institutions and hospitals per 1,000 population aged 65 years and over, 2021
– Institutions: 43.4
– Hospitals: 2.0

Source: OECD (2023), Health at a Glance 2023: OECD Indicators, OECD Publishing, Paris, doi.org/10.1787/7a7afb35-en.

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Hospital Beds Per 1,000 Population, 2021: 2.96
Total Doctors Consultations (In Person and Remotely), Number Per Capita, 2021: 7.871
Hospital Average Length of Stay (All Causes), 2021: 8.3 Days
Computed Tomography Scanners Per Million Population, 2021: 21.43
Magnetic Imaging Resonance Units Per Million Population, 2021: 20.35
Mammographs Per Million Population, 2021: 17.29

Source: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. OECD.Stat. Last accessed Nov. 15, 2023.

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“For nearly a decade (between 2012 and 2021), the number of hospital beds per 1,000 population in Spain stagnated at 3.0. While this is a reduction from the 3.7 per 1,000 population in 2000, it is a much smaller decrease than that experienced by other countries. This is partially because baseline rates in 2000 were already lower than that in most EU countries (compared to 4.7 per 1,000 in Italy, 8.0 per 1,000 in France and 9.1 per 1,000 in Germany). This overall consistency of approximately 3-4 hospital beds per 1,000 population reflects a mixture of increases (geriatric beds for older people), decreases (medical, surgical and psychiatric beds) and stability in the numbers of hospital beds (curative beds) within specific settings.”

Source: OECD/European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies (2023), Spain: Country Health Profile 2023, State of Health in the EU, OECD Publishing, Paris/European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, Brussels.

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“The number of hospitals in Spain has fallen in 15 years, from 19.2 hospitals in 2000 to 16.5 in 2015 per 1 million inhabitants. This figure is far below the OECD average, with a rate of 29.4 hospitals per 1 million inhabitants in 2015 (OECD, 2016a). In terms of size, 72% of hospitals have fewer than 200 beds and just 18 hospitals, all of them in the public sector, have more than 1000 beds. In terms of ownership, around 45% of the 765 hospitals in Spain belong to the public sector (MSSSI, 2015d). When it comes to the private sector, most of the private hospitals in Spain are for-profit, and there is a clear trend towards industrial concentration in hospital networks.

“With regard to primary health care resources, there are two different types of premises: (a) primary care centres (PCCs), which are health centres where the primary health care team (family physicians, staffed nurses and auxiliary personnel) provide extensive primary care services; and (b) local health offices (LHOs), attached to the former in isolated areas, where professionals provide basic assistance. According to the Information System for Primary Care, Spain had 3048 PCCs and 10111 LHOs in 2016, with 96% and 98%, respectively, owned by the public sector. The number of PCCs and LHOs has remained stable over the years (MSSSI, 2016g).”

Source: Bernal-Delgado E, García-Armesto S, Oliva J, Sánchez Martínez FI, Repullo JR, PeñaLongobardo LM, Ridao-López M, Hernández-Quevedo C. Spain: Health system review. Health Systems in Transition, 2018;20(2):1–179.

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World Health Systems Facts is a project of the Real Reporting Foundation. We provide reliable statistics and other data from authoritative sources regarding health systems and policies in the US and sixteen other nations.

Page last updated March 6, 2025 by Doug McVay, Editor.