Hospital occupancy statistics describe how much of a hospital system’s available capacity is being used. The figures below show substantial variation by country, care type, geography and measurement year: OECD curative acute-care occupancy averaged 72% in 2023, while Northern Ireland reached 93.1% in 2025/26 and Kenya’s national rate was 38.9% in 2018.
Contents
- What hospital occupancy measures
- OECD countries with the highest occupancy
- Middle and lower OECD occupancy rates
- The latest OECD benchmark
- Northern Ireland trends
- Kenya’s national trend
- County-level variation in Kenya
- Why national comparisons need context
What hospital occupancy measures
An occupancy rate is a utilization measure: it relates occupied beds to available beds over a stated period. It is not the same as the number of beds, admissions, patients treated or emergency-department crowding. The meaning also depends on the bed category. The OECD figures in the country comparisons refer to curative acute-care beds, whereas the Northern Ireland figures report hospital occupancy for that jurisdiction and the Kenya figures report national or county bed occupancy.
The time period matters as much as the percentage. The OECD country comparison below is for 2021, the newer OECD benchmark is for 2023, Northern Ireland uses reporting years, and the Kenya county comparison is from 2018. These are distinct snapshots rather than one synchronized global ranking.
OECD countries with the highest occupancy
The OECD’s 2021 comparison places Ireland at the top of the supplied group, with a 90% occupancy rate for curative acute-care beds. Israel followed at 89%, Canada at 87% and Costa Rica at 85%. The United Kingdom recorded 81%, while Switzerland recorded 80%.
| Country or group | Curative acute-care bed occupancy | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Ireland | 90% | 2021 |
| Israel | 89% | 2021 |
| Canada | 87% | 2021 |
| Costa Rica | 85% | 2021 |
| United Kingdom | 81% | 2021 |
| Switzerland | 80% | 2021 |
| Portugal | 78% | 2021 |
| Norway | 77% | 2021 |
| Chile | 76% | 2021 |
| France | 72% | 2021 |
Portugal recorded 78% in 2021, followed by Norway at 77%, Chile at 76% and France at 72%. These values come from Health at a Glance 2023, which presents the OECD comparison for curative acute-care beds.
Ireland’s number also illustrates why definitions should stay visible. Its 2021 curative-care occupancy rate was 82.8% when both public and private hospitals were included, compared with 90% when private hospitals were excluded. The two figures describe different coverage, so they should not be treated as contradictory measurements of exactly the same hospital population. Both are reported in Health at a Glance 2023.
Middle and lower OECD occupancy rates
Several countries clustered around the OECD26 average in 2021. Italy and Spain each recorded 71%, while Japan, Germany, Luxembourg and the OECD26 average were each 70%. Austria recorded 67%, and Estonia recorded 66%.
The United States, Latvia, Belgium and Croatia each recorded 65%. The Netherlands was at 64%. Mexico, Slovenia and the Czech Republic each recorded 61%. At the lower end of this supplied OECD set, the Slovak Republic recorded 59%, Bulgaria 58%, Lithuania 57%, Türkiye 56% and Hungary 55%.
| Country or benchmark | Curative acute-care bed occupancy | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Italy | 71% | 2021 |
| Spain | 71% | 2021 |
| Japan | 70% | 2021 |
| Germany | 70% | 2021 |
| OECD26 average | 70% | 2021 |
| Austria | 67% | 2021 |
| Estonia | 66% | 2021 |
| United States | 65% | 2021 |
| Netherlands | 64% | 2021 |
| Mexico | 61% | 2021 |
| Czech Republic | 61% | 2021 |
| Hungary | 55% | 2021 |
The full country values are from Health at a Glance 2023. They show a broad 35-percentage-point spread between the highest supplied country, Ireland at 90%, and the lowest, Hungary at 55%. That spread is descriptive of these reported rates; it does not by itself establish differences in quality, access or efficiency.
The latest OECD benchmark
The newer OECD benchmark reports that average occupancy of curative acute-care beds was 72% in 2023. Among the 29 OECD countries with comparable data, two had acute-care occupancy above 85%. The report identifies about 85% as a commonly cited maximum occupancy level for reducing bed-shortage risk, while emphasizing that it is not a universal optimum.
Occupancy should therefore be read alongside capacity. Across 31 OECD countries, average ICU capacity was 17 beds per 100,000 population in 2023. Czechia and Estonia each had around 40 or more ICU beds per 100,000 population, while New Zealand and Sweden each had fewer than 5 per 100,000. These ICU figures measure beds relative to population, not the percentage of those beds occupied.
These benchmark figures are reported in Hospital beds and occupancy: Health at a Glance 2025. The 2023 average should not be substituted for the 2021 country values above: the measurement year and comparison set differ.
Northern Ireland trends
Northern Ireland’s reporting-year figures show a marked rise in hospital occupancy across the supplied periods. Occupancy was 79.0% in 2021/22, increased to 84.8% in 2024/25, and reached 93.1% in 2025/26. This is a local time series, not an OECD acute-care ranking.
| Northern Ireland measure | Value | Reporting year |
|---|---|---|
| Hospital occupancy | 79.0% | 2021/22 |
| Hospital occupancy | 84.8% | 2024/25 |
| Hospital occupancy | 93.1% | 2025/26 |
| Average available hospital beds | 4,363.3 | 2025/26 |
| Average occupied hospital beds | 4,060.7 | 2025/26 |
| Average hospital length of stay | 7.2 days | 2025/26 |
In 2025/26, the average number of available beds was 4,363.3 and the average number occupied was 4,060.7. Average hospital length of stay was 7.2 days. The source reports these values in Release Of Northern Ireland Inpatient, Day Case and Outpatient Hospital Statistics for 2025/26.
The three occupancy percentages indicate increasing use across the reporting years, but they should not be used to infer the cause of that change from these figures alone. The bed counts and length-of-stay measure provide additional operational context without identifying a specific driver.
Kenya’s national trend
Kenya’s supplied national series is lower than the OECD and Northern Ireland examples and changes direction over time. National bed occupancy was 42% in 2015, rose to 50.6% in 2016, then fell to 47.9% in 2017 and 38.9% in 2018.
| Year | Kenya national bed occupancy |
|---|---|
| 2015 | 42% |
| 2016 | 50.6% |
| 2017 | 47.9% |
| 2018 | 38.9% |
The national figures are presented in ANALYSIS AND USE OF HEALTH FACILITY DATA: Guidance for national and district managers and planners. They are historical measurements for 2015–2018. They should not be presented as a current national estimate, and the series does not by itself explain why occupancy changed between years.
County-level variation in Kenya
The 2018 county figures show that a national average can conceal wide local differences. Trans-Nzoia had the highest supplied rate at 65.1%, followed by Kakamega at 60.1%. Bungoma recorded 47.3%, Baringo 42.5% and Turkana 40.8%.
At the lower end, Busia recorded 28.4%, West Pokot 27.5%, Siaya 20.6% and Vihiga 19.3%.
| County | Bed occupancy | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Trans-Nzoia | 65.1% | 2018 |
| Kakamega | 60.1% | 2018 |
| Bungoma | 47.3% | 2018 |
| Baringo | 42.5% | 2018 |
| Turkana | 40.8% | 2018 |
| Busia | 28.4% | 2018 |
| West Pokot | 27.5% | 2018 |
| Siaya | 20.6% | 2018 |
| Vihiga | 19.3% | 2018 |
All of these county values are from the same WHO guidance document, ANALYSIS AND USE OF HEALTH FACILITY DATA: Guidance for national and district managers and planners, and refer to 2018. The figures demonstrate geographic variation, but they do not establish that one county’s hospitals are performing better or worse than another’s. Comparability depends on the underlying facilities, bed definitions and reporting coverage.
Why national comparisons need context
The supplied case studies use different measures and dates. Israel’s internal-medicine bed occupancy averaged 88.6% in 2022, according to Shifting medical inpatient payments from per diem to global budgets. That is an internal-medicine measure and should not be treated as identical to the OECD curative acute-care measure.
Bulgaria’s hospital occupancy rate was 67% in 2016, as reported in Physical resources: Bulgaria 2018. This is a different period from Bulgaria’s 58% curative acute-care occupancy in the 2021 OECD comparison. The two values are not evidence of a verified trend without matching definitions and a consistent time series.
Taken together, the statistics support three careful comparisons. First, occupancy can be high in a national or regional system even when the relevant capacity measure differs. Second, a lower percentage can coexist with substantial local variation, as the Kenya county figures show. Third, an occupancy percentage is most informative when its bed category, geography, coverage and measurement period are stated alongside it. For readers comparing systems, those qualifiers are part of the statistic rather than optional footnotes.