CHONGQING: China’s medical equipment market expanded 60.5% between 2021 and 2025, reaching 1.44 trillion yuan ($208 billion) last year, according to data released at the 2026 China Medical Equipment Conference in Chongqing. The figures also showed medical equipment exports totaled $45.8 billion in 2025, up 62.4% from 2019. The China Association of Medical Equipment said the country remained the world’s second-largest single-country market, adding to a series of recent indicators showing continued growth across one of China’s largest healthcare manufacturing segments.
The 2025 total followed a market size of 1.35 trillion yuan in 2024, according to figures released at last year’s conference in Chongqing, putting year-on-year growth at about 6.7%. In 2024, major enterprises in the sector reported revenue of more than 540 billion yuan, official data showed. The latest figures indicate that the market continued to expand into 2025 after a strong multi-year run, with both domestic demand and export sales contributing to the increase in overall industry value across medical equipment categories.
Official statistics help explain the size of that demand. By the end of 2025, China had 1.107 million medical and health institutions, including about 38,000 hospitals, and 10.09 million beds across its healthcare system. Medical and health institutions handled 10.58 billion visits in 2025, according to national data. The country’s population aged 65 and above reached 223.65 million at the end of last year, a demographic profile that coincided with high healthcare usage across hospitals, clinics and community-level medical facilities.
Healthcare demand supports expansion
The export figure of $45.8 billion in 2025 provides another measure of the industry’s scale, extending a rise of 62.4% from 2019. The association said the sector has increasingly shifted from competition driven mainly by cost toward development based more on technology and brand strength. The latest data reflects the growing presence of Chinese medical equipment suppliers in overseas markets while also highlighting the size of domestic production tied to hospital procurement, diagnostics, imaging systems, monitoring devices and other equipment used across the healthcare system.
China’s broader healthcare market has also continued to grow. Official trade guidance estimated the country’s overall healthcare market exceeded $1 trillion in 2024, with public hospitals remaining the dominant buyers of medical equipment. That procurement structure keeps hospital investment and domestic manufacturing capacity at the center of industry performance. Against that backdrop, the 2025 medical equipment market total and export value stand out as key indicators of activity generated by China’s healthcare system and the industrial base that supports it.
Regulation and procurement remain in focus
Regulatory changes have continued alongside the market’s expansion. China’s National Medical Products Administration in late 2025 released revised good manufacturing practice rules for medical devices, with the new standards due to take effect on Nov. 1, 2026. Earlier policy changes also adjusted rules for producing certain imported medical devices in domestic enterprises in China. Those measures form part of a wider regulatory update for drugs and medical devices as the sector grows in size, product complexity and importance to the country’s healthcare system.
The new market data announced in Chongqing adds to a recent run of official and industry figures showing sustained growth across China’s medical equipment business. With 2025 market size at 1.44 trillion yuan, exports at $45.8 billion and healthcare usage remaining high nationwide, the sector entered 2026 with substantial scale in both domestic sales and overseas shipments. The conference figures also provide one of the clearest benchmarks so far for the size of China’s medical equipment industry after the end of the country’s 2021-2025 planning period. – By Content Syndication Services.