People who follow these mattters at all know that expenditures on health care in the United States have been rising steadily and at a pace far higher than inflation for many years now. So, it comes as no surpise to see the size of the market for hospital services more than double in the period 1997 to 2007. Hospital revenues grew by 108.6% between 1997 and 2007 which is 80% above the rate of inflation over this period.

The Bureau of the Census definition of the industry covered by this market size, a subset of the overall health care industry, reads as follows: “Industries in the Hospitals subsector provide medical, diagnostic, and treatment services that include physician, nursing, and other health services to inpatients and the specialized accommodation services required by inpatients. Hospitals may also provide outpatient services as a secondary activity. Establishments in the Hospitals subsector provide inpatient health services, many of which can only be provided using the specialized facilities and equipment that form a significant and integral part of the production process.”

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 1997 and 2007
Market size: $339 billion and $707 billion in annual receipts respectively
Source: “2007 Economic Census: Sector 62: Health Care and Social Assistance Programs: Preliminary Comparative Statistics for the United States 2007 and 2002,” March 26, 2010, available online here. Data for 1997 are from a report by the same title in the “1997 Economic Census” series.
Original source: U.S. Bureau of the Census