Number of hospitals and hospital employment in each state in 2019

Hospitals and their employees provide essential services for so many people. They treat the seriously ill or injured, take care of new mothers and their babies, and often are where people go for surgery. Especially at a time of great national need, it is important to know the hospital resources available in each state.

One measure is to compare the number of hospitals with the size of the population. For the entire nation, there were 13,944 hospitals in the third quarter of 2019. The U.S. population was 328.2 million in July 2019. That gives us a ratio of 23,540 people per hospital. New Jersey, with 49,073 people per hospital, had the highest ratio. Other states with high ratios were New York, Oregon, and Rhode Island. The District of Columbia, Idaho, North Dakota, Louisiana, and South Dakota had the lowest ratios of people per hospital.

Another measure is to compare the number of hospital employees with the size of the population. There were about 6.6 million hospital employees in the United States in September 2019, giving us a national ratio of 50 people per hospital employee. Puerto Rico, Utah, Nevada, and California had the highest ratios. The District of Columbia again had the lowest ratio, followed by South Dakota, North Dakota, Massachusetts, and West Virginia.

The data on establishments and employment are from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages. You can get more industry employment data for the nation, states, counties, and metropolitan areas through the data viewer tool. The number of hospital establishments and their employment includes hospitals that are privately owned and owned by federal, state, or local governments. The number of establishments and employment is not publishable at the state level for a small number of hospital establishments owned by state and local governments. These hospitals are included in the totals for the nation. The population estimates are from the U.S. Census Bureau.