In 2024, there were 4,979,678 hospital discharges, 2.3% more than in 2023.
By sex, discharges increased 2.7% in men and 2.0% in women. If the episodes of pregnancy, childbirth and the puerperium are excluded, the increase of women was 2.5%. More than half of hospital discharges corresponded to women (51.2%). However, if pregnancy, childbirth and puerperium are excluded, this percentage would be of 47.4%.
Of the hospital discharges during the year, 62.8% were emergency admissions.
Rates per 100,000 inhabitants
With regard to the data regarding hospital discharges per 100,000 inhabitants (known as hospital morbidity rates), in 2024 there were 10,189 discharges per 100,000 inhabitants, which was an increase of 1.2% over the previous year.
The male hospital morbidity rate increased by 1.5% and stood at 10,137 discharges per 100,000 men. That of women rose by 0.9%, to 10,239 discharges per 100,000 women. However, if discharges due to episodes of pregnancy, childbirth and puerperium are excluded, the female rate rose by 1.4% and stood at 8,798 discharges per 100,000 women.
Among the most frequent diseases, those that increased the most were those of the respiratory system (7.4%), while those that decreased the most were infectious and parasitic diseases -including COVID-19 infection- which decreased by 5.8%.
For the second consecutive year, diseases of the digestive system were the leading cause of hospitalisation in 2024, with an increase of 3.2% over the previous year. Diseases of the respiratory system moved up into second place.
Absolute Values
The average hospital stay was of 7.9 days in 2024, 0.2 fewer days than the year before.
By type of hospital, the average length of stay in public hospitals was 7.5 days and in private hospitals 9.0 days.
Average stay in days
For more frequent diagnostic groups, the longer average stays corresponded to mental and behavioural disorders (55.4 days), infectious and parasitic diseases (9.4) and nervous system diseases (9.1).
Absolute values and number of days
1COVID-19 infection is included in the group of Certain infectious and parasitic diseases.
The communities with the highest hospital discharge rates per 100,000 inhabitants in 2024 were Principado de Asturias (11,749), Cataluña (11,434) and País Vasco (11,428).
On the other hand, the autonomous cities of Melilla (5,588) and Ceuta (6,457) and Andalucía (8,248) presented the lowest rates.
Rate per 100,000 inhabitants
Looking at the main diagnosis groups, the highest hospital morbidity rates for digestive system diseases were in Castilla y León (1,655 per 100,000 inhabitants), Aragón (1,482) and La Rioja (1,474).
Respiratory system diseases presented the highest rates in Castilla y Leon (1,659), Principado de Asturias (1,598) and Galicia (1,527).
In turn, Principado de Asturias registered the highest hospital morbidity rate due to circulatory system diseases (1,758), followed by Cantabria (1,460) and Castilla y Leon (both with 1,453).
The data published today are final. All the results of this operation are available at INEBase.
The Hospital Morbidity Survey (EMH) has been carried out by the INE in collaboration with Eustat - the Basque Institute of Statistics in the Autonomous Community of Euskadi and in collaboration with CatSalut and the Department of Health of the Generalitat of Catalunya.
The Hospital Morbidity Survey (HMS) offers information on hospital discharges with hospitalisation regarding the main diagnosis related to the discharge. Hospital discharge is the procedure where a patient hospitalised in a Health Centre or Establishment stops using a hospitalisation bed due to recovery, improvement, death, transfer, or voluntary discharge.
The HMS’s main objective is to know the demographic-sanitary characteristics of the unwell who have been admitted to a hospital centre or have spent at least one night there, as well as to have information to national, autonomous community, and province level on the frequency and use of the hospital sources on the reference year.
The health information is based on the main diagnosis shown on the hospital discharge report that the patient receives and have motivated their admittance according to the criteria of the clinic service or physician who attended the unwell. The characteristics gathered from the unwell are the following: sex, age, admittance date, discharge date, residence province, type of admittance, and motive of discharge.
The survey results are published following the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10-CM for Spain).
More information on the methodology and the standardised methodological report.
INE statistics are produced in accordance with the Code of Good Practice for European Statistics. More information on Quality at INE and the Code of Best Practices.
Official INE account on
@es_ine