Mexico’s private hospital statistics showed movements in different directions in 2025. The Health Statistics in Private Healthcare Establishments (ESEP) from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) included information from 2,689 private establishments with countable beds, compared with 2,747 in 2024. However, during the same period, countable beds increased from 35,400 to 35,732, while hospital discharges rose from 2,273,261 to 2,329,690.
The data do not allow us to state that 58 hospitals closed or that there was, by itself, a trend toward corporate consolidation. ESEP uses the private hospital unit with countable beds as its observation unit and records private establishments that meet these characteristics. Therefore, the correct interpretation is more limited: within the universe reported by ESEP, there were 2.1% fewer establishments than in 2024, while beds increased 0.9% and discharges increased 2.5%.
What Changed in Private Hospitalization Between 2024 and 2025?
The comparison shows that there was no uniform expansion or contraction. Some resources and activities increased, while others decreased. Outpatient consultations, for example, fell 4.8%, but hospital discharges increased 2.5%. The number of medical professionals reported by the establishments also increased, while operating rooms, clinical laboratories, and intensive care units decreased.
| Indicator | 2024 | 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Establishments | 2,747 | 2,689 | -2.1% |
| Countable beds | 35,400 | 35,732 | +0.9% |
| Outpatient consultations | 14,533,217 | 13,839,462 | -4.8% |
| Hospital discharges | 2,273,261 | 2,329,690 | +2.5% |
| Reported medical professionals | 99,892 | 107,290 | +7.4% |
| Medical offices | 17,390 | 17,453 | +0.4% |
| Operating rooms | 5,193 | 5,145 | -0.9% |
| Clinical analysis laboratories | 878 | 856 | -2.5% |
| X-ray equipment | 2,050 | 2,056 | +0.3% |
| Mammography machines | 409 | 419 | +2.4% |
| Intensive care units | 1,992 | 1,915 | -3.9% |
The percentage changes are calculations by CONSULTORSALUD based on the totals published by INEGI.
There was also a slight change in the distribution by size. In 2024, 61.8% of establishments had between one and nine countable beds; in 2025, that proportion was 60.7%. At the upper end, facilities with 50 beds or more increased from 106 to 110, and their share rose from 3.9% to 4.1%. The data describe the composition of the ESEP universe in both years, but they do not allow us to conclude that the sector is undergoing a consolidation process.
Where Is Private Hospital Capacity Concentrated?
The 35,732 countable beds in 2025 were unevenly distributed among the federal entities. Seven accounted for 55.4% of the total: Mexico City, with 13.4%; State of Mexico, with 10.9%; Jalisco, with 9.3%; Nuevo León, with 6.1%; Guanajuato, with 5.9%; Michoacán, with 5.0%; and Puebla, with 4.8%. The remaining 44.6% corresponded to the other states.
The difference remains when adjusted for population. Mexico City had the highest rate, with 51.5 countable beds in private establishments per 100,000 inhabitants, while Nayarit recorded the lowest, with 6.7. INEGI calculated these rates using its own population estimate based on the Housing Sampling Framework and referenced to June 30, 2025.
Private Hospital Snapshot
Private establishments with countable beds · Mexico
| Indicator | 2024 | 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Private establishments | 2,747 | 2,689 | -2.1% |
| Countable beds | 35,400 | 35,732 | +0.9% |
| Outpatient consultations | 14,533,217 | 13,839,462 | -4.8% |
| Hospital discharges | 2,273,261 | 2,329,690 | +2.5% |
| Reported medical professionals | 99,892 | 107,290 | +7.4% |
| Medical offices | 17,390 | 17,453 | +0.4% |
| Operating rooms | 5,193 | 5,145 | -0.9% |
| Clinical analysis laboratories | 878 | 856 | -2.5% |
| X-ray equipment | 2,050 | 2,056 | +0.3% |
| Mammography machines | 409 | 419 | +2.4% |
| Intensive care units (ICUs) | 1,992 | 1,915 | -3.9% |
Source: INEGI, Health Statistics in Private Healthcare Establishments (ESEP), 2024 and 2025 results. Percentage changes were calculated from the official totals.
How to Read This Dashboard
Universe: private healthcare establishments with countable beds included in INEGI’s 2025 Health Statistics in Private Healthcare Establishments (ESEP). It does not represent all private healthcare in Mexico.
National indicators: the 2025 totals were compared with the ESEP 2025 Results Report. Variations compared with 2024 are calculations by CONSULTORSALUD based on official figures from both editions.
States: the values for beds, discharges, consultations, personnel, and equipment are obtained by adding the 2025 ESEP public microdata by state. The national establishment count (2,689) comes from the official report and not from the number of rows in the microdata.
Caution: “ICU” refers to intensive care units reported by INEGI; it is not equivalent to ICU beds and should not be added to countable beds.
Source: INEGI, Health Statistics in Private Healthcare Establishments (ESEP), 2024 and 2025 results. Interactive development: CONSULTORSALUD.
At the municipal and territorial level, 78 areas had at least 100 countable beds and 25 had more than 300. Among the largest reported volumes were Guadalajara, with 1,473 beds; Monterrey, with 1,209; Cuauhtémoc, in Mexico City, with 1,047; and Tijuana, with 1,000. These figures describe only establishments included in ESEP and not the entire private healthcare supply existing in those cities.
Outpatient Consultations Declined While Hospital Discharges Increased
In 2025, 13,839,462 outpatient consultations were recorded at private establishments covered by ESEP, compared with 14,533,217 in 2024. The reduction was approximately 693,755 consultations, equivalent to 4.8%. INEGI also reported that the outpatient consultation rate decreased by 623 consultations per 100,000 inhabitants compared with the previous year.
Specialized care continued to account for the largest share: 48.5% of outpatient consultations corresponded to specialty care, 34.7% to general consultations, and 14.1% to emergency care. Preventive medicine and dentistry accounted for the remaining 2.7%. Within specialized consultations, obstetrics and gynecology represented 23.5%, pediatrics 17.3%, internal medicine 12.4%, and pre- and postoperative consultations 9.9%.
Hospital activity behaved differently. Discharges increased by 56,429 cases, from 2,273,261 in 2024 to 2,329,690 in 2025. Of that total, 63.2% occurred in establishments with at least 15 countable beds. The main causes of hospital morbidity were pregnancy, childbirth, and the puerperium, with 14.9%; diseases of the digestive system, with 14.7%; and injuries, poisonings, and other consequences of external causes, with 9.5%. The national average length of stay was 2.1 days.
Both movements — fewer outpatient consultations and more hospital discharges — occurred during the same period, but ESEP does not demonstrate a causal relationship between them. Therefore, it would not be correct to claim that patients shifted from outpatient consultations to hospitalization.
More Medical Personnel Reported, but Fewer ICUs and Operating Rooms
Establishments reported 107,290 medical professionals in 2025, compared with 99,892 in 2024, a difference of 7.4%. In 2025, 83.8% worked under a special agreement derived from the relationship with the patient and the arrangements made with the establishment, while 16.2% were on hospital payrolls. Among medical personnel in direct contact with patients, 84.7% were specialists and 11.1% were general practitioners.
This figure should be understood as personnel reported by the hospital units included in ESEP and not as a measurement of the entire private medical workforce in the country. The statistic uses the hospital establishment as its observation unit, and its objective includes the human resources available in those units.
In terms of infrastructure, the changes were also not uniform. Operating rooms decreased from 5,193 to 5,145 and intensive care units from 1,992 to 1,915. In contrast, mammography machines increased from 409 to 419 and X-ray equipment from 2,050 to 2,056. In 2025, 62.1% of ICUs corresponded to adult care and 37.9% to neonatal care.
Here it is important to respect INEGI’s definitions. An intensive care unit is not equivalent to an “ICU bed.” The ESEP form distinguishes countable beds, used for regular hospitalization and generating statistical discharges, from non-countable beds intended for temporary care, which may include intensive care spaces. For that reason, the 1,915 ICUs should not be added to the 35,732 countable beds.
What Can Be Concluded From the 2025 Data?
The evidence allows us to state that the universe of private establishments with countable beds recorded by ESEP was smaller in 2025 than in 2024, while countable beds and hospital discharges increased. A reduction in outpatient consultations, growth in reported medical personnel, and different changes among the physical resources examined were also observed.
ESEP does not, however, allow these movements to be attributed to closures, mergers, changes in ownership, patient shifts, or specific business decisions. Nor does it represent all private healthcare in Mexico: the instructions state that the reporting units consist of private medical facilities that provide hospitalization and have countable beds, excluding establishments that only provide outpatient consultations and those dedicated exclusively to diagnostic services.
The 2025 snapshot therefore shows simultaneous changes in activity, installed capacity, and human resources within the private hospital universe measured by ESEP. Determining whether these movements are part of a structural trend will require observing their evolution in future editions of the statistics, without attributing causal explanations to the current data that INEGI does not establish.
Methodology and Sources
For this analysis, CONSULTORSALUD used as its primary source the 2025 Health Statistics in Private Healthcare Establishments (ESEP) from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI). The study focuses exclusively on the universe defined by this statistical operation: private healthcare establishments that have countable beds, whose observation unit is the private hospital unit. For this reason, the results do not represent all private healthcare in Mexico and do not include, for example, medical offices that provide only outpatient care or establishments dedicated exclusively to diagnostic services.
Analysis Methodology
CONSULTORSALUD processed the public 2025 ESEP microdata provided by INEGI to identify and aggregate, primarily by federal entity, information corresponding to:
- material resources and hospital infrastructure;
- countable beds;
- medical offices;
- operating rooms;
- intensive care units;
- X-ray, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and mammography equipment;
- medical personnel;
- outpatient consultations;
- hospital discharges;
- days of stay;
- births;
- procedures and hospital activity.
The variables were interpreted according to the definitions established in the PEC-6-20-A Form and its completion instructions. This review was necessary to avoid equating categories that INEGI measures differently. For example, a countable bed corresponds to a bed intended for regular hospitalization that generates statistical discharges, while non-countable beds correspond to temporary care and may include spaces intended for intensive care.
Likewise, INEGI defines an intensive care unit as a physical space equipped to care for critically ill patients, differentiated between adult and neonatal care. Therefore, in this analysis, ICUs are not presented as synonymous with “ICU beds” and are not added to countable beds.
The results obtained through processing the microdata underwent a consistency check against the national aggregates officially published by INEGI. Among other indicators, the totals of 35,732 countable beds, 17,453 medical offices, 5,145 operating rooms, 2,056 X-ray machines, 419 mammography machines, and 1,915 intensive care units reported for 2025 were verified.
To establish the year-over-year comparison, the official ESEP 2024 and ESEP 2025 results were used. The percentage changes presented in the article were calculated by CONSULTORSALUD based on those official figures and rounded to one decimal place.
The analysis is descriptive. The changes observed between 2024 and 2025 were not used to infer causality. Consequently, a reduction in the number of reported establishments was not automatically interpreted as hospital closures, nor was the increase in discharges alongside the decrease in outpatient consultations presented as evidence of patients moving between care modalities.
Primary Sources Used
- National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI). Health Statistics in Private Healthcare Establishments (ESEP) 2025. Results Report, published on July 31, 2026. The document contains national and state-level results on establishments, services, morbidity, mortality, human resources, and infrastructure.
- INEGI. ESEP 2025 Microdata. The public databases corresponding to resources, hospitalization, outpatient consultations, diagnostic and treatment procedures, morbidity, and territorial catalogues were used, along with the variable dictionary provided by INEGI.
- INEGI. Health Statistics in Private Healthcare Establishments. PEC-6-20-A Form, 2024 version. Used to verify the operational definitions of services, hospitalization, human resources, infrastructure, and equipment.
- INEGI. PEC-6-20-A Form Completion Instructions, 2024 version. Used to define the statistical universe, reporting source, and registration criteria used by ESEP.
- INEGI. Health Statistics in Private Healthcare Establishments (ESEP) 2024. Results Report, published on August 1, 2025. Used as the official reference for year-over-year comparisons with 2025.
Source: consultorsalud
