Romania has the third-highest number of hospital beds in the EU relative to population, but does not report how occupied they are
728 beds per 100,000 inhabitants, 43% above the EU average, a gap that has deepened, not narrowed, over the last decade.
The ROptimizaRE editorial team · 5 min read · updated 15 October 2026
In short
- In 2023 Romania had 728.41 hospital beds per 100,000 inhabitants, 3rd in the EU after Bulgaria (864.39) and Germany (766.45)[1]
- The EU27 average was 510.65 beds per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023; Romania has almost 43% more[1]
- The number of beds has risen steadily in Romania (667 in 2013 → 728 in 2023), while the EU average fell slightly (539 → 511); the gap has deepened, not narrowed[1]
- Romania does not report the hospital bed occupancy rate to Eurostat: the “inpatient curative care bed occupancy rate” indicator has no recorded value for Romania, unlike 32 other countries[1]
More capacity, not necessarily more care
The number of hospital beds relative to population is one of the standard indicators used to compare EU health systems. A high number can mean good access to hospital care, but it can also mean capacity maintained above real need, with upkeep costs and no proportional benefit. Official Eurostat data show Romania at an unusually high level compared with the rest of the Union[1].
Hospital beds per 100,000 inhabitants, Romania, 2023
728.4
Year 2023 · source[1]
3rd in the EU, after Bulgaria and Germany.
EU27 average, 2023
510.7
Year 2023 · source[1]
Romania has almost 43% more beds for the same number of inhabitants.
Hospital beds per 100,000 inhabitants, 2023[1]
2023
Romania: rank 3 of 7 (1 = the highest value)
View the data as a table
| Country | Value |
|---|---|
| Bulgaria | 864.4 |
| Germany | 766.5 |
| Romania | 728.4 |
| Poland | 627.1 |
| France | 539.5 |
| EU average | 510.7 |
| Italy | 304.1 |
| Sweden | 187.6 |
The difference is neither recent nor accidental: in 2013 Romania already had 667 beds per 100,000 inhabitants, against an EU average of 539. Ten years later Romania rose to 728 and the EU average fell to 511, a gap that widened from about 128 beds to almost 218, while most EU states gradually reduced their hospital capacity[1].
How much capacity is actually used? We don't know, at least not from Eurostat
Without occupancy data, the article cannot directly quantify the cost of “empty beds”, the central theme of this pillar. What can be said, from the data available, is that Romania maintains hospital capacity per capita clearly above most EU states, at a time when the rest of the Union is moving in the opposite direction, towards more concentrated networks with fewer beds, used more intensively.
Sources
Primary official sources; where we use the press (only when the official document is not public) we mark it. The links lead to the original document or to the report cited (titles are translated; the documents themselves are in Romanian unless stated).
- [1]
Eurostat — Hospital beds by function and type of care (hlth_rs_bds1) (data extracted from the official Eurostat API; hospital beds per 100,000 inhabitants, Romania vs. the EU27, and a 2023 ranking)
Accessed 15 October 2026 · the original document(opens in a new tab)
This is a translation of the Romanian article, which prevails. Source titles are translated for convenience; the documents themselves are in Romanian unless stated.