Choosing a hospital is rarely a simple decision. It is often made in moments of uncertainty, when unusual symptoms or a difficult diagnosis is already weighing heavy on the patient. That’s why dependable guidance on where to find high-quality medical care is so important. Whether an individual is seeking care for themselves or for a loved one, clear information can help them pursue the best possible health outcomes.
The number of hospitals worldwide is projected to approach 216,000 this year, according to global data platform Statista. With so many options to consider, it can be challenging for patients and families to gather a comprehensive view of their options.
To help bridge that gap, Newsweek has partnered with Statista to present the World’s Best Hospitals 2026 ranking, now in its eighth year. Our list highlights leading hospitals around the globe and provides country-specific rankings, so readers can find information tailored to their needs and location.
This year’s evaluation includes hospitals across 32 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. These countries were selected using multiple comparability criteria, including population size, life expectancy, standard of living, hospital density and the availability of reliable data.
Each hospital was reviewed and given a score based on four data sources: recommendations from medical experts—including doctors, hospital managers and other health care professionals—hospital quality metrics, existing patient experience data and Statista’s Patient-Reported Outcome Measures Implementation Survey. PROMs are defined as standardized, validated questionnaires completed by patients to measure their perception of their functional well-being and quality of life.
The 2026 methodology expanded upon previous iterations of the ranking, including the Philippines and Turkey for the first time. In addition, this year’s evaluation gives greater weight to hospital quality metrics, incorporates new accreditation, quality, safety and patient experience data across multiple countries and further elevates the role of PROMS through a higher weighting and revised Implementation Survey.
More than 2,500 hospitals were evaluated this year, with special recognition given to the top 250 institutions worldwide. The top five honorees are Mayo Clinic-Rochester (Rochester, Minnesota), Toronto General-University Health Network (Toronto), Cleveland Clinic (Cleveland), Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset (Stockholm) and Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston).
Reliable, transparent data can be invaluable when navigating health care decisions. We hope that this ranking serves as a practical resource for patients, families and health care leaders seeking insight into some of the world’s most respected medical institutions.
Alexis Kayser, Healthcare Editor
Is your hospital not featured in the ranking? Discover the new Global Hospital Rating by Newsweek and Statista.
World’s Best Hospitals 2026 – Top 250
Footnotes:
• 1 – No hospital quality metrics were used to determine the score for these hospitals. Their scores rely on other available national-level data such as patient experience data and recommendations from medical experts.
• 2 – No patient satisfaction data was used to determine the score for these hospitals. Their scores rely on other available national-level data such as hospital quality metrics and recommendations from medical experts.
• 3 – No medical KPI or patient satisfaction data were available for the hospital’s region. Their scores rely on results based on other available national-level data.
LICENSING
Are you on the list? Click here to learn more about the licensing options.
METHODOLOGY
World’s Best Hospitals 2026 lists the best hospitals in 32 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. The countries were selected based on multiple comparability factors, such as standard of living/life expectancy, population size, number of hospitals and data availability.
For the fourth time, hospitals were surveyed regarding their Patient-Reported Outcome Measures implementation status. PROMs are defined as standardized, validated questionnaires completed by patients to measure their perception of their functional well-being and quality of life. With the guidance of the global board of medical experts, Newsweek and Statista have updated the PROMs Implementation Survey for the 2026 ranking cycle. The survey was sent out to hospitals in fall/winter 2025, and participation was also possible on newsweek.com and r.statista.com. Furthermore, the board of medical experts supports the continuous development of the overall methodology.
The lists are based on four data sources:
1. Hospital Quality Metrics: Quality metrics from a variety of public sources were collected for most countries. Quality metrics differ between countries. Examples of incorporated data include metrics on the quality of care for specific treatments, hygiene measures and the number of patients per doctor or nurse.
2. Hospital recommendations from peers: Newsweek and Statista invited tens of thousands of medical experts (doctors, hospital managers and health care professionals) in 32 countries to participate in an online survey. Participants were asked to recommend hospitals in their own country as well as in other countries. Recommendations for own employer/hospital were not allowed.
3. Patient Experience: Results from patient experience surveys were incorporated into the scoring model. Publicly available data from existing patient surveys was used to analyze patient experience. Patient surveys are typically conducted by insurance companies among patients after hospitalization. Examples of survey topics include general satisfaction with the hospital, recommendation of the hospital and satisfaction with medical care.
4. PROMs Implementation Survey: In the fall and winter of 2025 Newsweek and Statista reached out to hospitals and conducted a survey about the implementation and use of PROMs.
Since 2024, Statista has partnered with the International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM, www.ichom.org) as a knowledge partner. ICHOM is the world’s leading non-profit organization dedicated to development of standardized measurement of patient-important outcomes (including PROMs) as a basis for driving value-based health care. ICHOM is contributing to the future development of the PROMs Implementation Survey in a manner that can drive not only measurement but also the use of data from PROMs (and other patient-important outcomes) to advance value-based health care.
Scores were calculated for each hospital in each of the four categories and weighted: Hospital quality metrics (40 percent), peer recommendations (30 percent national, 5 percent international), patient experience (18.5 percent) and PROMs implementation (6.5 percent).
Every hospital in each country is rated with a score. Scores are comparable only within the same country, since each country relies on different sources for patient experience and hospital quality metrics. These structural differences prevent a meaningful standardization of the data across countries. Therefore, scores cannot be compared between countries (e.g., a score of 90 in country A does not necessarily reflect higher performance than a score of 87 in country B).
The number of hospitals awarded in each country varies based on the number of hospitals and data availability in the respective country. The U.S. had the most hospitals awarded, with 420, while Israel and Singapore were represented with 10 hospitals each. In total, 2,530 hospitals were ranked for this seventh edition of the ranking.
The top global hospitals were determined by the number of international recommendations received in the survey and their national rank. The global list does not include specialized hospitals.
Legal disclaimer:
The rankings are comprised exclusively of hospitals that are eligible regarding the scope described in this document. A mention in the ranking is a positive recognition based on peer recommendations and publicly available data sources at the time. The ranking is the result of an elaborate process which, due to the interval of data-collection and analysis, is a reflection of the last calendar year. Furthermore, events preceding or following the period January 1, 2025 to December 31, 2025, and/or pertaining to individual persons affiliated/associated with the facilities were not included in the metrics. As such, the results of this ranking should not be used as the sole source of information for future deliberations. The information provided in this ranking should be considered in conjunction with other available information about hospitals or, if possible, accompanied by a visit to a facility. The quality of hospitals that are not included in the rankings is not disputed.
The methodology overview is available here.
The extended methodology is available here.
PROMs:
- 1 Ribbon: less than 43 percent
- 2 Ribbons: 43 to less than 58 percent
- 3 Ribbons: 58 to less than 76 percent AND internal or external reporting subscore greater than 0 percent
- 4 Ribbons: 76 to less than 92 percent AND internal reporting subscore greater than 0 percent
- 5 Ribbons: 92 to 100 percent AND auditing subscore greater than 0 percent
– The focus of World’s Best Hospitals is to award general hospitals. Specialized hospitals which have been recommended are listed without a rank at newsweek.com.
– Infection Prevention: The Infection Prevention Award identifies which of the U.S. hospitals featured in the national ranking performed above the nationwide level based on CDC infection measures and Leapfrog hand hygiene criteria.
– Patient Experience: The patient experience award recognizes hospitals with an outstanding performance based on the ratings across the 10 composite measures of the HCAHPS survey.
About Statista R
Statista R is a world leader in the creation of company, brand and product rankings and top lists, based on comprehensive market research and data analysis: Statista R recognizes the best. With a team of over 100 expert analysts and in cooperation with more than 40 high-profile media brands across all continents, Statista R creates transparency for consumers and business decision-makers and helps companies build trust and recognition across a plethora of industries and product categories. Visit r.statista.com for further information about Statista R and our rankings. Statista R is a division of Statista. The leading data and business intelligence portal provides an extensive collection of statistics, reports and insights on over 80,000 topics from 22,500 sources in 170 industries. Find out more at statista.com.
About ICHOM
The International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM, www.ichom.org) is the leading nonprofit dedicated to transforming health care by focusing on what truly matters to patients. They accomplish this by empowering patient and clinical leaders to standardize important clinical, quality of life, function and experience results for health care, and enabling transparent large-scale use to achieve patient-centric health system transformation. ICHOM’s standardized “sets” of patient-centered outcome measures help all actors in health care design, deliver and evaluate care based on outcomes that matter to patients. To date, ICHOM has developed 45 outcome measure sets for different conditions. The sets are available in IT-ready interoperable formats and have been implemented in over 500 care settings in more than 42 countries.
About The Leapfrog Group
The Leapfrog Hospital Survey was created and is administered by The Leapfrog Group (https://www.leapfroggroup.org/), a leading independent, national not-for-profit organization advocating for hospital transparency.
They strive to make giant “leaps“ forward in the U.S. by promoting transparency through their data collection and public reporting initiatives.
With their goal of saving lives by reducing errors, injuries, accidents, and infections, The Leapfrog Group focuses on measuring and publicly reporting hospital performance through the annual Leapfrog Hospital Survey. The survey is a trusted, transparent and evidence-based national tool in which over 2,400 hospitals voluntarily participate free of charge.
The Leapfrog Group advocates for public access to quality and safety data from all U.S. hospitals.
The Expert Board:
Prof. Dr. David W. Bates (Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston)
Dr. Gary S. Kaplan (Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, Seattle)
Prof. Dr. med. Christoph A. Meier (University of Geneva and University Hospital Zürich)
Prof. Dr. med. Jens Deerberg-Wittram (Technische Universität Berlin and Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin)
Prof. Gregory Katz (Université Paris Cité School of Medicine and PromTime, Paris)
Prof. Dr. Eyal Zimlichman (Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan, Israel)
Current members of the board of experts are listed here.
