Note (September 2026): This guide now reflects Newsweek’s 2026 ranking and CMS’s 2024 spending data. Earlier versions misstated Cleveland Clinic’s founding date and affiliation and misreported private insurance’s share of U.S. health spending; these have been corrected.
The best hospitals in the United States include Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. In Newsweek’s World’s Best Hospitals 2026 ranking, published February 25, 2026, these four placed 1st, 3rd, 5th and 6th in the world, with Mayo Clinic ranked No. 1 overall.
Key Takeaways
- Mayo Clinic in Rochester is the top-ranked U.S. hospital in Newsweek’s World’s Best Hospitals 2026 and No. 1 in the world.
- Four U.S. hospitals made Newsweek’s global top 10 in 2026: Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, Massachusetts General Hospital and Johns Hopkins Hospital.
- Rankings measure different things. Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, Healthgrades, the Leapfrog Group and CMS each use different data, so a hospital’s position varies by list.
- U.S. health spending reached $5.3 trillion in 2024, or $15,474 per person and 18.0% of GDP, according to CMS.
- The best hospital for a patient depends on the condition, the specialty ranking, safety grades, insurance network and distance, not only on an overall list.
According to a recent rating of hospitals by Newsweek, the United States has some of the greatest hospitals in the world, including the No. 1 overall best hospital.
Hospitals In USA – List of Top Hospitals In USA
The World Health Organization ended the COVID-19 global health emergency on May 5, 2023, but U.S. hospitals still operate in a difficult climate: pandemic-era relief has ended and costs keep rising. According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), U.S. spending on hospital care grew 8.9% in 2024 to about $1.63 trillion. In addition to the commitment to research and innovation, Newsweek also took into account the quality of care when compiling the list.
List of Top Hospitals in the USA
| Rank | Hospital Name | Location (City, State) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mayo Clinic | Rochester, MN |
| 2 | Cleveland Clinic | Cleveland, OH |
| 3 | Johns Hopkins Hospital | Baltimore, MD |
| 4 | Massachusetts General Hospital | Boston, MA |
| 5 | UCSF Medical Center | San Francisco, CA |
| 6 | NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital | New York City, NY |
| 7 | UCLA Medical Center | Los Angeles, CA |
| 8 | Stanford Health Care | Stanford, CA |
| 9 | Cedars-Sinai Medical Center | Los Angeles, CA |
| 10 | Northwestern Memorial Hospital | Chicago, IL |
| 11 | Mount Sinai Hospital | New York City, NY |
| 12 | Brigham and Women’s Hospital | Boston, MA |
| 13 | Houston Methodist Hospital | Houston, TX |
| 14 | NYU Langone Health | New York City, NY |
| 15 | Barnes-Jewish Hospital | St. Louis, MO |
| 16 | University of Michigan Hospitals | Ann Arbor, MI |
| 17 | Vanderbilt University Medical Center | Nashville, TN |
| 18 | Mayo Clinic Arizona | Phoenix, AZ |
| 19 | Emory University Hospital | Atlanta, GA |
| 20 | Thomas Jefferson University Hospital | Philadelphia, PA. |
Disclaimer: The above list is compiled based on the most recent credible sources such as U.S. News & World Report rankings, hospital accreditations, and public healthcare data as of 2026. Hospital performance and specialties may change; consult hospitals directly for the latest information and personalized care.
Healthcare is one of the most profitable industries in America, with doctors earning substantial salaries and services costing so much that the majority of people must have health insurance. The US healthcare system has glaring difficulties and problems, in contrast to certain other industrialized nations like the U.K. and Canada, both of which rely on publicly financed healthcare and also have higher income tax rates to pay for these costs.
America has high per capita spending on healthcare
With data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) indicating that as of 2021, National Health Expenditure (NHE) per capita in the U.S. stood at $12,914, America also has some of the highest per capita spending on healthcare. With a staggering $4.3 trillion in total spending or 18.3% of the entire pie, the health sector of the American gross domestic product (GDP) was one of the greatest in terms of overall expenditure. Private health insurance alone accounted for about $1.2 trillion of 2021 spending. By 2024, according to CMS, private health insurance accounted for $1.64 trillion (31% of the total) and out-of-pocket payments by patients for $556.6 billion (11%).
The federal government was the largest sponsor of health spending in the United States in 2021, contributing 34% of the total expenditure. In 2024 the federal share was 31%, followed by households at 28% and private businesses at 18%, according to CMS. State and local governments contributed another 15% in 2021 (16% in 2024), so government sources together made up nearly half of all healthcare spending in the country.
Looking ahead, the latest CMS projections expect national health spending to grow an average of 5.4% a year from 2025 to 2034, faster than average GDP growth of 4.1%, raising health spending from 18.0% of GDP in 2024 to 20.6% in 2034. An earlier CMS projection, cited when this article was first written, forecast 5.1% annual growth through 2030. Projections like these shift with the economy, which is why CMS revises them each year. International comparisons tell the same story. According to the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker (March 2026), health consumption spending averaged $14,775 per person in the United States in 2024, almost $5,000 more than the next-highest peer country, Switzerland. Older figures quoted in an earlier version of this article ($11,702 per person in the U.S. and $8,493 in Switzerland) are now out of date. Switzerland reaches universal coverage differently from England’s tax-funded National Health Service: since 1994, Swiss federal law has required every resident to buy basic health insurance, and insurers must offer that basic cover to everyone regardless of age or medical condition.
The American hospital sector is a very profitable one as a whole. According to a Grand View Research analysis, the market for medical facilities in the United States would be worth $1.5 trillion in 2022. Despite its enormous size, the sector is expected to develop at a high compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.62% between 2022 and 2030. By doing this, it is predicted that the industry would be valued at $2.5 trillion by the year 2030. Since the market shrank by 2.2% between 2019 and 2020 as hospitals were compelled to use all of their resources to treat COVID-19 patients, the coronavirus pandemic is partially to blame for this significant growth.
In fact, the early stages of the pandemic had a significant negative impact on hospitals’ revenue; from March to June 2020, a four-month period, hospitals lost more than $200 billion in revenue. According to Grand View Research, a backlog of all these cases may help the industry generate more cash, and as Americans’ life expectancies increase, more senior people are turning to these facilities for their medical requirements. Keeping all these details in mind, here is a list of the best hospitals in the US.
The Methodology Used
We researched the best hospitals in America from Healthgrades, U.S. News, and Newsweek to create our list, which is based on a consensus of opinions. A hospital’s rating was used to determine its score for the U.S. News and Newsweek rankings, while its total number of awards was used to get its score for Healthgrades. A final ranking was then calculated by averaging the scores. The lower the score, the better the hospital’s ranking. Ten of the leading hospitals from that research are profiled below. The table above lists 20 widely recognized U.S. hospitals, and the ranking comparison further down shows the latest official results from Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report.
Mayo Clinic
The Mayo Clinic system’s primary medical facility is located in Rochester. Mayo Clinic is also known for an extensive art collection, with works by artists such as Andy Warhol, Auguste Rodin, Alexander Calder and Joan Miró displayed across its campuses. The hospital is renowned for its expert blending of operations and technology, and it has even created its own software for these needs. U.S. News & World Report ranked Mayo Clinic in Rochester the No. 1 hospital in the United States from 2016 through at least its 2021-22 edition. The best hospital in the United States, according to Newsweek, is Mayo Clinic in Rochester, which also ranked No. 1 in the world in Newsweek’s World’s Best Hospitals 2026 list, published on February 25, 2026.
Cleveland Clinic
Cleveland Clinic is a nonprofit academic medical center owned and operated by the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, an Ohio nonprofit corporation. Numerous medical facilities and hospitals are connected to it. Cleveland Clinic was founded in 1921 by a group of faculty and alumni from the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, and its main campus has about 1,300 beds. In Newsweek’s World’s Best Hospitals 2026 ranking, Cleveland Clinic placed third in the world and second among U.S. hospitals, behind Mayo Clinic. The Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine is its own medical publication.
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Los Angeles, California’s Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is a nonprofit medical facility. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is a 919-bed teaching hospital with more than 2,000 physicians and about 10,000 employees. U.S. News & World Report places it among the leading hospitals in the country; its 2025 specialty rankings put Cedars-Sinai’s gastroenterology and GI surgery program No. 2 nationally, and Newsweek ranked the hospital 46th in the world in 2026. The David Geffen Medical School at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is associated with the hospital. The hospital has a competitive advantage in areas of cutting-edge medical research including biomanufacturing and artificial intelligence, thanks to its location in California.
The Johns Hopkins Hospital
One of the top medical schools in the world, the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine’s teaching hospital is located at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. It has more than a thousand beds and is funded by both the government and the private sector. The ENT, neurology, and radiology departments at the hospital are among the best in the country. The Johns Hopkins Hospital also has the exceptional distinction of being the top-ranked American hospital by U.S. News for an incredible 21 years up until 2012.
Massachusetts General Hospital
Another teaching hospital of the Harvard Medical School is Massachusetts General Hospital, also referred to as Mass General. It was established in 1811 and is more than 200 years old. It is also the largest HMS teaching hospital. The hospital has accomplished a number of noteworthy feats, including the first public demonstration of ether anesthesia in October 1846 and, in 1962, the first successful replantation of a completely severed limb, a young patient’s arm. A global second opinion service is also available.
Stanford University Medical Center
The Stanford University School of Medicine uses the Stanford University Medical Center as a teaching hospital. Stanford operates Stanford Life Flight, a critical-care helicopter transport program that began on May 1, 1984, and the hospital is verified by the American College of Surgeons as a Level I trauma center.
Northwestern Medicine
Northwestern Medicine is situated in Chicago, Illinois and it is a non-profit hospital.
New York Presbyterian Hospital
The Cornell and Columbia Universities are connected to NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. With more than 4,000 beds across its campuses in the New York metropolitan area, it is one of the biggest hospitals in the world.
Houston Methodist Hospital
Weill Cornell Medical College is affiliated with Houston Methodist Hospital. It has robust engineering medicine and biomedical research divisions.
Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center
One of the medical facilities at the University of California, Los Angeles is the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. UCLA’s medical faculty includes Nobel laureates such as pharmacologist Louis Ignarro, who shared the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries about nitric oxide as a signaling molecule. Newsweek ranked Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center 14th in the world in 2026, the fifth-highest U.S. hospital on that list.
Which US Hospitals Rank Highest in Newsweek’s World Ranking?
Newsweek’s World’s Best Hospitals 2026 ranking, produced with the research firm Statista and published on February 25, 2026, evaluated 2,530 hospitals in 32 countries and named the top 250. The ten highest-ranked U.S. hospitals on that list are shown below with their world position.
| U.S. position | Hospital | Location | World rank (Newsweek 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mayo Clinic – Rochester | Rochester, MN | 1 |
| 2 | Cleveland Clinic | Cleveland, OH | 3 |
| 3 | Massachusetts General Hospital | Boston, MA | 5 |
| 4 | Johns Hopkins Hospital | Baltimore, MD | 6 |
| 5 | Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center | Los Angeles, CA | 14 |
| 6 | Brigham and Women’s Hospital | Boston, MA | 18 |
| 7 | The Mount Sinai Hospital | New York City, NY | 22 |
| 8 | Stanford Health Care – Stanford Hospital | Stanford, CA | 24 |
| 9 | UCSF Medical Center | San Francisco, CA | 45 |
| 10 | Cedars-Sinai Medical Center | Los Angeles, CA | 46 |
The rest of Newsweek’s 2026 global top 10 were University Health Network – Toronto General (Canada, 2nd), Karolinska University Hospital (Sweden, 4th), Sheba Medical Center (Israel, 7th), Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (Germany, 8th), University Hospital Zurich (Switzerland, 9th) and Singapore General Hospital (Singapore, 10th). The 20-hospital table near the top of this page is an editorial list of widely recognized U.S. hospitals, not an official ranking, so its order differs from Newsweek’s.
How Are Hospitals Ranked in the United States?
Hospital rankings in the United States come from several independent organizations, and each one measures something different. Knowing what a list measures helps explain why the same hospital can place differently from one ranking to the next.
| Ranking or rating | Who publishes it | What it is based on | Best used for |
|---|---|---|---|
| World’s Best Hospitals | Newsweek with Statista | Hospital quality metrics (40%), peer recommendations from medical professionals (35%), patient experience data (18.5%) and a survey on patient-reported outcome measures (6.5%) | Comparing leading hospitals across countries |
| Best Hospitals and Honor Roll | U.S. News & World Report | Performance in adult specialties and common procedures and conditions; the 2026-2027 edition names an Honor Roll of 20 hospitals | Finding hospitals strong in a specific specialty |
| Star ratings and Best Hospitals awards | Healthgrades (part of RVO Health) | Clinical outcomes data, summarized as star ratings and awards such as America’s 50, 100 and 250 Best Hospitals | Checking outcomes for particular procedures |
| Hospital Safety Grade | The Leapfrog Group | Up to 32 patient-safety measures, turned into a letter grade twice a year for most general acute-care hospitals | Checking how well a hospital prevents errors and infections |
| Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating | Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) | Publicly reported quality measures, summarized as one to five stars on the Care Compare tool at Medicare.gov | A government benchmark for comparing local hospitals |
Researchers have questioned how reliable some composite scores are; a 2002 study in JAMA, for example, raised concerns about Healthgrades’ heart attack mortality ratings. For that reason, a ranking is best treated as a starting point for research rather than a final verdict.
What Do the Latest U.S. News Rankings Show?
U.S. News & World Report has published its Best Hospitals rankings since 1990. The 2026-2027 edition includes an Honor Roll of 20 hospitals, and several hospitals on this page earned notable results in recent editions:
- NYU Langone Health (New York City) was named to the 2026-2027 Honor Roll and ranked No. 1 in the nation for both neurology and neurosurgery and for cardiology, heart and vascular surgery.
- The Mount Sinai Hospital (New York City) was included on the 2025-2026 Honor Roll.
- NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is ranked by U.S. News as the No. 1 hospital in New York and the New York City metropolitan area.
- Houston Methodist Hospital was ranked No. 1 in Texas in 2025 and recognized in ten specialties.
- Cedars-Sinai Medical Center ranked No. 2 in the nation for gastroenterology and GI surgery in 2025.
Because U.S. News updates its rankings every year, the most reliable approach is to check the current edition for the specific specialty a patient needs.
How Much Does the United States Spend on Healthcare?
The United States spent $5.3 trillion on health care in 2024, or $15,474 per person, according to CMS’s National Health Expenditure data. That total grew 7.2% from 2023 and equaled 18.0% of gross domestic product. Hospital care was the largest single category at $1,634.7 billion, up 8.9%.
| Source of funds (2024) | Amount | Share of total |
|---|---|---|
| Private health insurance | $1,644.6 billion | 31% |
| Medicare | $1,118.0 billion | 21% |
| Medicaid | $931.7 billion | 18% |
| Out-of-pocket payments | $556.6 billion | 11% |
Compared with other wealthy countries, U.S. spending stands out. According to the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker, the United States spent 17.2% of GDP on health consumption in 2024, while comparable high-income countries averaged 11.2%. Peer countries averaged about $7,860 per person, roughly half the U.S. level. For a closer look at the businesses behind these numbers, see this overview of the largest healthcare companies in the USA.
How to Choose the Right Hospital for Your Needs
The highest-ranked hospital overall is not automatically the best choice for every patient. These general steps help narrow the options; they are not medical advice, and a physician should guide decisions about treatment.
- Start with the specialty. Look at rankings for the condition or procedure involved, such as cancer, cardiology or orthopedics, rather than only the overall list.
- Check safety records. Review the hospital’s Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade and its CMS star rating on Care Compare. Hospital-acquired infections are a real risk; this guide explains when hospital-acquired infections can count as medical malpractice.
- Confirm insurance coverage. Ask the insurer whether the hospital and its doctors are in network before scheduling care. This guide to the benefits of having a health insurance plan covers the basics, and why healthcare and health insurance matter explains the wider picture.
- Ask about experience. Hospitals that perform a procedure often tend to have more practiced teams; patients can ask how many similar cases the hospital handles each year.
- Consider distance and follow-up. Travel to a distant center can make sense for complex care, but follow-up visits matter too. Many large systems offer virtual visits, and telehealth is changing how patients get care.
- Prepare for tests. Knowing what to expect from common imaging, such as this step-by-step CT scan guide, can make a hospital visit less stressful.
What Are the Limits of Hospital Rankings?
Hospital rankings summarize large amounts of data, but they have limits that patients should keep in mind.
- Different methods, different results: Newsweek gives heavy weight to peer recommendations, while Leapfrog focuses on patient safety, so the same hospital can rank very differently.
- Averages hide details: An overall rank does not show how a hospital performs for one specific condition.
- Data lags: Most rankings rely on data that is one to several years old when a list is published.
- Access matters: A top-ranked hospital may be out of network, far away or have long wait times for appointments.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the No. 1 hospital in the United States?
Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, is widely considered the No. 1 hospital in the United States. Newsweek’s World’s Best Hospitals 2026 ranked it first in the world, and U.S. News & World Report ranked it the top U.S. hospital from 2016 through at least its 2021-22 edition.
What is the best hospital in the world?
According to Newsweek’s World’s Best Hospitals 2026 ranking, published February 25, 2026, Mayo Clinic in Rochester is the best hospital in the world, followed by Toronto General Hospital (University Health Network) in Canada and Cleveland Clinic in the United States.
How many US hospitals are in Newsweek’s global top 10?
Four U.S. hospitals made Newsweek’s 2026 global top 10: Mayo Clinic (1st), Cleveland Clinic (3rd), Massachusetts General Hospital (5th) and Johns Hopkins Hospital (6th).
How are the best hospitals in the US ranked?
The best hospitals in the US are ranked by independent organizations using different data. Newsweek combines quality metrics, peer recommendations and patient experience; U.S. News & World Report scores specialties and procedures; Leapfrog grades patient safety; and CMS publishes one-to-five-star quality ratings on Care Compare.
Is a top-ranked hospital always the best choice?
A top-ranked hospital is not always the best choice. The right hospital depends on the specific condition, the hospital’s results in that specialty, its safety record, insurance coverage and distance from home. Patients should discuss options with their doctor.
How much does the US spend on healthcare per person?
The United States spent $15,474 per person on health care in 2024, according to CMS, for a total of $5.3 trillion, or 18.0% of GDP. CMS projects health spending will reach 20.6% of GDP by 2034.
