World's top hospitals include 13 from Spain in 2024

A ranking of the world's best hospitals released in February by Newsweek includes 13 from Spain in the top 250.

Published annually, the complete list includes 2,400 hospitals in 30 countries, with two new nations entering for the first time – Chile and Malaysia. The countries included in the ranking are selected based on multiple factors, such as standard of living/life expectancy, population size, number of hospitals and data availability.

Spain's best medical centres, according to the classification, are found throughout the mainland, from north to south. Six of them are in the top 100, and a total of seven Spanish hospitals are in the top 150.

The top-ranked in Spain is Madrid's Hospital La Paz, in 46th place. Seven in total are in the capital, including the second-best in the country, the 12 de Octubre University Hospital in Madrid, at number 54.

Another three are in Catalunya, one in Pamplona (Navarra), and one each in Valencia and Sevilla. Barcelona's Hospital Clínic is third in Spain and number 59 in the world, then the Vall d'Hebron hospital in Barcelona is at 70.

The Madrid's Gregorio Marañón General University Hospital is ranked 76th in the world, and the Clínica Universidad de Navarra – which also has a branch in Madrid – comes in at 80. Madrid's Ramón y Cajal Hospital is 144th in the world.

After number 150, Valencia's La Fe Hospital (181), Madrid's Hospital Clínico San Carlos (183), Sevilla's Virgen del Rocío (190), Jiménez Díaz Foundation University Hospital (203), Puerta de Hierro (221) and Barcelona's La Santa Creu i Sant Pau (234) appear.

Some of the hospitals ranked much higher on certain specialist areas, however.

Each hospital's score is based on an online survey of more than 85,000 medical experts and public data from post-hospitalisation patient surveys on their general satisfaction. The score also considers metrics on things like hygiene measures, patient safety and number of patients per doctor and nurse.

Further proof that the Spanish healthcare system is one of the best in the world. So it is not surprising that expats in Spain want to have access to it when they move to Spain. If you want to know how to access the Spanish healthcare system, what the public health system covers and much more, read all the information in our article Navigating Spain's national healthcare system.