Denmark has two of the world’s top 30 hospitals – ranking

Aarhus University Hospital ranked 19th and Rigshospitalet seven places further back

Denmark has two of the top 30 hospitals in the world, according to an annual ranking based on expert opinions compiled by Newsweek.com and Statista.

Leading the way was Aarhus University Hospital in 19th place with Copenhagen’s very own Rigshospitalet in 26th.

The ranking was quite extensive, assessing 2,200 hospitals in 27 countries, and 21 of them had at least one hospital in the top 150.

Denmark ended up with four, as Odense University Hospital and Aalborg Hospital did enough to be ranked 95th and 110th respectively.

Performing in the pandemic
The results, to some extent, reflect the efforts of hospitals worldwide to deal with the pandemic.

Many hospital representatives told Newsweek how COVID-19 had forced them to dig into their physical and mental reserves: “improvising on the fly” was how one put it.

“What has set the world’s leading hospitals apart is their continued ability to deliver the highest-quality patient care and conduct critical medical research even as they focused on battling COVID,” praised the ranking compilers.

“Indeed, as the fourth annual ranking of the World’s Best Hospitals by Newsweek and Statista shows, consistency in excellence is the hallmark of these institutions, with familiar names dominating the list and top spots.”

US hospitals dominate
US hospitals accounted for the top three places: Mayo Clinic – Rochester (Minnesota), The Cleveland Clinic (Ohio) and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. 

In total the US had 33 hospitals in the top 150, well ahead of the second best country: Germany with 14. Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, ranked fifth, was the top hospital in Europe. 

Italy and France had 10 each. AP-HP Hôpital Universitaire Pitié Salpêtrière was France’s top hospital at seventh, while Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset in Sweden was the Nordic Region’s top performer at eighth. 

Sheba Medical Center, at 10th, was the top performer outside Europe and North America, and South Korea the best performing country, with eight of the top 150. 




  • Becoming a stranger in your own country

    Becoming a stranger in your own country

    Many stories are heard about internationals moving to Denmark for the first time. They face hardships when finding a job, a place to live, or a sense of belonging. But what about Danes coming back home? Holding Danish citizenship doesn’t mean your path home will be smoother. To shed light on what returning Danes are facing, Michael Bach Petersen, Secretary General of Danes Worldwide, unpacks the reality behind moving back

  • EU Foreign Ministers meet in Denmark to strategize a forced Russia-Ukraine peace deal

    EU Foreign Ministers meet in Denmark to strategize a forced Russia-Ukraine peace deal

    Foreign ministers from 11 European countries convened on the Danish island of Bornholm on April 28-29 to discuss Nordic-Baltic security, enhanced Russian sanctions, and a way forward for the fraught peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow

  • How small cubes spark great green opportunities: a Chinese engineer’s entrepreneurial journey in Denmark

    How small cubes spark great green opportunities: a Chinese engineer’s entrepreneurial journey in Denmark

    Hao Yin, CEO of a high-tech start-up TEGnology, shares how he transformed a niche patent into marketable products as an engineer-turned-businessman, after navigating early setbacks. “We can’t just wait for ‘groundbreaking innovations’ and risk missing the market window,” he says. “The key is maximising the potential of existing technologies in the right contexts.”

  • Gangs of Copenhagen

    Gangs of Copenhagen

    While Copenhagen is rated one of the safest cities in the world year after year, it is no stranger to organized crime, which often springs from highly professional syndicates operating from the shadows of the capital. These are the most important criminal groups active in the city

  • “The Danish underworld is now more tied to Scandinavia”

    “The Danish underworld is now more tied to Scandinavia”

    Carsten Norton is the author of several books about crime and gangs in Denmark, a journalist, and a crime specialist for Danish media such as TV 2 and Ekstra Bladet.

  • Right wing parties want nuclear power in Denmark

    Right wing parties want nuclear power in Denmark

    For 40 years, there has been a ban on nuclear power in Denmark. This may change after all right-wing parties in the Danish Parliament have expressed a desire to remove the ban.

Connect Club is your gateway to a vibrant programme of events and an international community in Denmark.