Healthcare Insights

U.S. states ranked by their average healthcare facility age

As the population in the United States continues to age, more and more resources are being directed toward developing ways to provide the critical care necessary to keep people healthy. A substantial part of that investment is the creation or modernization of facilities where healthcare can be delivered in new and more effective ways.

Of course, these facilities will require maintenance and renovations just like any other type of real estate. Using our HospitalView database, we’ve ranked states in the U.S. by the average age of their healthcare facilities.

State ranking by average age of facility

Fig. 1 – Data is from the Definitive Healthcare HospitalView product. Accessed June 2024.

Which state has the oldest healthcare facilities?

Hawaii has the oldest healthcare facilities on average in the country at about 20.8 years. Washington is second, with an average healthcare facility age of about 18.1 years. Closely behind in third is Oregon with an average age of 17.9 years.

Arizona has the newest facilities on average at only 9.4 years. Regionally, states in the Northeast or the West Coast tend to have higher average healthcare facility ages than anywhere else in the U.S.

Read our Healthcare Insight on the specific U.S. regions with the oldest hospital facilities for a more comprehensive and granular analysis.

The cost of renovating facilities continues to rise

Even as many states consider the need to address aging facilities, the cost of doing so continues to rise. According to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, total construction spending on healthcare facilities in the U.S. reached a seasonally adjusted annual rate of almost $54 billion in November 2022, up from $43.3 billion in November 2017, which is growth of about 4.5% annually.

Increased building costs have been a big part of the reason for the increase in overall spending. Since 2020 the input prices for final construction have increased by more than 33%. Many factors are at play here, including increased costs for labor and raw materials like lumber and cement. However, as governments and central banks implement policies aimed at reducing inflation, there is widespread hope that these trends will subside, and prices will revert to the long-term trend.

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Healthcare Insights are developed with healthcare commercial intelligence from the Definitive Healthcare platform. Want even more insights? Start a free trial now and get access to the latest healthcare commercial intelligence on hospitals, physicians, and other healthcare providers.