Research
UK Care Home Density & Quality Index
England has 4.4% care home beds for every 100 people aged 65 and over. Beds per capita, CQC rating quality and closure churn, mapped by region and local authority from CQC open data and ONS mid-2024 population estimates. Updated 23 Jul 2026.
Key findings
- England has 480,491 registered care home beds across 14,797 CQC-active locations, or 4.4% beds per 100 people aged 65 and over nationally.
- Bed density varies substantially by region: South East has the highest ratio at 4.9% beds per 100 over-65s, against 3.4% in London.
- 76.0% of care homes hold an overall CQC rating of Good or Outstanding; 0.8% are rated Inadequate and 15.2% Requires improvement.
- Across the five CQC inspection domains, Well-led has the lowest Good-or-above share at 74.7%, while Caring is highest at 94.1%.
- 758 care home locations were deactivated on the CQC register in the trailing 12 months to 2026-07-23 (4.9% of the combined active-plus-deactivated base), representing 23,319 beds.
Source: CQC open data and ONS mid-2024 population estimates, both under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Aggregated by region and local authority only; no individual care home or provider is named. Figures may be cited with attribution to Care Home Tax.
Care home beds per 100 people aged 65 and over, by region
Each region's registered care home beds, divided by its ONS mid-2024 population aged 65 and over and expressed per 100. This is a capacity ratio, not an occupancy figure: it does not mean 1 in ~23 older people are in a care home today, only that this many beds exist relative to the older population in that region.
CQC overall rating quality, nationally and by region
CQC's overall rating for each care home rolls up five inspection domains into a single rating: Outstanding, Good, Requires improvement or Inadequate. Outstanding and Good are combined below as a single “Outstanding or Good” segment.
By region
Rating quality by CQC inspection domain
Every CQC inspection assesses five domains separately before rolling up to the overall rating. The chart below shows the share of care homes rated Good or Outstanding on each domain, nationally. Well-led (governance and leadership) and Safe consistently score lower than Caring, which is the domain families and residents interact with most directly.
Care deserts and best-provided areas
Local authorities with the lowest and highest care home beds per 100 people aged 65 and over, restricted to local authorities with at least 5 active care homes so a single-home area cannot distort a per-capita ratio. These are area-level figures; no individual care home is identified.
Lowest bed density
| Local authority | Beds/100 65+ |
|---|---|
| Haringey | 1.3% |
| Hackney | 1.4% |
| Southwark | 1.8% |
| Westminster | 1.8% |
| Camden | 1.9% |
| Kensington and Chelsea | 2.0% |
| Tower Hamlets | 2.0% |
| Newham | 2.1% |
| Brent | 2.4% |
| Hounslow | 2.4% |
Highest bed density
| Local authority | Beds/100 65+ |
|---|---|
| Middlesbrough | 6.9% |
| Surrey | 6.3% |
| Windsor and Maidenhead | 6.3% |
| Croydon | 6.1% |
| Kingston upon Thames | 6.1% |
| Leicester | 6.1% |
| East Sussex | 6.0% |
| East Riding of Yorkshire | 5.9% |
| Stoke-on-Trent | 5.9% |
| Blackpool | 5.7% |
Closure and registration churn by region
Care home locations deactivated on the CQC register in the trailing 12 months to 2026-07-23, by region. A deactivation can reflect an outright closure, a change of registered provider, or a relocation, so this is registration turnover rather than a pure business failure count.
| Region | Deactivations (12m) | Beds lost (12m) | Churn rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| North East | 50 | 2,120 | 6.4% |
| East Midlands | 96 | 3,007 | 6.2% |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | 88 | 3,623 | 5.7% |
| London | 72 | 1,862 | 5.3% |
| North West | 105 | 3,779 | 5.3% |
| East of England | 85 | 2,145 | 4.9% |
| South West | 85 | 2,352 | 4.4% |
| South East | 112 | 2,755 | 3.8% |
| West Midlands | 65 | 1,676 | 3.7% |
Full region table
| Region | Care homes | Beds | Pop. 65+ | Beds/100 65+ | Good or above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| East Midlands | 1,450 | 45,548 | 1,005,693 | 4.5% | 74.1% |
| East of England | 1,637 | 55,900 | 1,312,711 | 4.3% | 71.5% |
| London | 1,283 | 37,489 | 1,115,497 | 3.4% | 82.7% |
| North East | 736 | 26,846 | 575,784 | 4.7% | 86.5% |
| North West | 1,868 | 63,058 | 1,456,178 | 4.3% | 73.6% |
| South East | 2,805 | 93,066 | 1,910,667 | 4.9% | 75.2% |
| South West | 1,862 | 55,911 | 1,341,357 | 4.2% | 83.7% |
| West Midlands | 1,691 | 52,750 | 1,167,649 | 4.5% | 69.4% |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | 1,465 | 49,923 | 1,095,556 | 4.6% | 73.8% |
Full local authority table (England)
All 152 English local authorities with at least one active CQC-registered care home, sorted alphabetically. Download the complete dataset, including deactivation and churn columns, as CSV below.
| Local authority | Care homes | Beds | Beds/100 65+ | Good or above |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barking and Dagenham | 23 | 657 | 3.3% | 87.0% |
| Barnet | 79 | 3,016 | 5.0% | 79.7% |
| Barnsley | 71 | 2,262 | 4.5% | 77.5% |
| Bath and North East Somerset | 55 | 1,900 | 4.9% | 76.4% |
| Bedford | 73 | 1,703 | 5.1% | 74.0% |
| Bexley | 31 | 1,618 | 3.8% | 71.0% |
| Birmingham | 281 | 7,544 | 4.9% | 68.3% |
| Blackburn with Darwen | 35 | 1,083 | 4.7% | 74.3% |
| Blackpool | 71 | 1,720 | 5.7% | 71.8% |
| Bolton | 59 | 1,906 | 3.6% | 79.7% |
| Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole | 136 | 4,604 | 5.2% | 90.4% |
| Bracknell Forest | 18 | 781 | 3.7% | 61.1% |
| Bradford | 109 | 4,135 | 4.7% | 74.3% |
| Brent | 49 | 1,048 | 2.4% | 83.7% |
| Brighton and Hove | 85 | 2,009 | 5.0% | 85.9% |
| Bristol, City of | 91 | 2,847 | 4.6% | 92.3% |
| Bromley | 52 | 1,900 | 3.2% | 80.8% |
| Buckinghamshire | 134 | 4,930 | 4.5% | 64.2% |
| Bury | 51 | 1,570 | 4.3% | 84.3% |
| Calderdale | 48 | 1,366 | 3.3% | 66.7% |
| Cambridgeshire | 142 | 5,702 | 4.2% | 82.4% |
| Camden | 11 | 510 | 1.9% | 81.8% |
| Central Bedfordshire | 65 | 2,084 | 3.6% | 69.2% |
| Cheshire East | 108 | 4,943 | 5.2% | 68.5% |
| Cheshire West and Chester | 85 | 3,349 | 4.2% | 63.5% |
| Cornwall | 200 | 4,887 | 3.2% | 78.5% |
| County Durham | 146 | 5,371 | 4.6% | 90.4% |
| Coventry | 72 | 2,048 | 4.0% | 61.1% |
| Croydon | 129 | 3,475 | 6.1% | 85.3% |
| Cumberland | 78 | 2,347 | 3.5% | 84.6% |
| Darlington | 32 | 1,305 | 5.5% | 78.1% |
| Derby | 74 | 2,481 | 5.6% | 74.3% |
| Derbyshire | 244 | 7,627 | 4.1% | 75.0% |
| Devon | 312 | 8,658 | 3.9% | 83.3% |
| Doncaster | 81 | 2,567 | 4.1% | 76.5% |
| Dorset | 121 | 4,504 | 3.8% | 82.6% |
| Dudley | 92 | 2,546 | 3.8% | 62.0% |
| Ealing | 36 | 1,456 | 3.0% | 83.3% |
| East Riding of Yorkshire | 151 | 5,731 | 5.9% | 68.2% |
| East Sussex | 296 | 9,036 | 6.0% | 78.0% |
| Enfield | 82 | 2,014 | 4.2% | 73.2% |
| Essex | 408 | 13,370 | 4.1% | 74.8% |
| Gateshead | 50 | 2,079 | 5.0% | 92.0% |
| Gloucestershire | 200 | 6,172 | 4.2% | 81.0% |
| Greenwich | 43 | 962 | 3.0% | 79.1% |
| Hackney | 13 | 314 | 1.4% | 84.6% |
| Halton | 25 | 747 | 2.9% | 68.0% |
| Hammersmith and Fulham | 11 | 622 | 3.0% | 72.7% |
| Hampshire | 480 | 15,753 | 4.9% | 76.9% |
| Haringey | 24 | 375 | 1.3% | 87.5% |
| Harrow | 52 | 1,435 | 3.4% | 92.3% |
| Hartlepool | 27 | 1,007 | 5.1% | 92.6% |
| Havering | 60 | 1,971 | 4.1% | 80.0% |
| Herefordshire, County of | 86 | 2,227 | 4.3% | 79.1% |
| Hertfordshire | 256 | 10,047 | 4.6% | 66.8% |
| Hillingdon | 47 | 1,557 | 3.6% | 87.2% |
| Hounslow | 32 | 885 | 2.4% | 78.1% |
| Isle of Wight | 61 | 1,798 | 4.2% | 77.0% |
| Isles of Scilly | 1 | 14 | 2.3% | 0.0% |
| Islington | 18 | 758 | 3.5% | 83.3% |
| Kensington and Chelsea | 11 | 443 | 2.0% | 72.7% |
| Kent | 503 | 15,724 | 4.7% | 72.6% |
| Kingston upon Hull, City of | 78 | 2,238 | 5.2% | 64.1% |
| Kingston upon Thames | 44 | 1,588 | 6.1% | 72.7% |
| Kirklees | 127 | 3,526 | 4.4% | 74.0% |
| Knowsley | 27 | 1,051 | 3.7% | 66.7% |
| Lambeth | 35 | 983 | 3.3% | 71.4% |
| Lancashire | 423 | 13,527 | 5.0% | 76.4% |
| Leeds | 159 | 6,051 | 4.6% | 68.6% |
| Leicester | 101 | 2,827 | 6.1% | 72.3% |
| Leicestershire | 162 | 5,254 | 3.3% | 75.3% |
| Lewisham | 50 | 908 | 2.9% | 88.0% |
| Lincolnshire | 285 | 9,242 | 4.8% | 69.8% |
| Liverpool | 85 | 3,451 | 4.4% | 60.0% |
| Luton | 35 | 994 | 3.7% | 68.6% |
| Manchester | 82 | 2,190 | 4.0% | 72.0% |
| Medway | 66 | 1,720 | 3.6% | 63.6% |
| Merton | 35 | 872 | 3.0% | 97.1% |
| Middlesbrough | 48 | 1,793 | 6.9% | 85.4% |
| Milton Keynes | 49 | 1,684 | 3.9% | 75.5% |
| Newcastle upon Tyne | 73 | 2,627 | 5.5% | 76.7% |
| Newham | 23 | 595 | 2.1% | 82.6% |
| Norfolk | 322 | 10,373 | 4.4% | 61.2% |
| North East Lincolnshire | 55 | 1,859 | 5.4% | 80.0% |
| North Lincolnshire | 59 | 1,933 | 4.9% | 76.3% |
| North Northamptonshire | 113 | 3,465 | 5.0% | 80.5% |
| North Somerset | 97 | 2,962 | 5.5% | 90.7% |
| North Tyneside | 43 | 1,766 | 3.9% | 81.4% |
| North Yorkshire | 205 | 7,407 | 4.5% | 79.5% |
| Northumberland | 95 | 3,499 | 4.0% | 87.4% |
| Nottingham | 78 | 2,014 | 5.1% | 70.5% |
| Nottinghamshire | 281 | 9,177 | 5.0% | 78.3% |
| Oldham | 46 | 1,659 | 4.2% | 78.3% |
| Oxfordshire | 148 | 6,962 | 5.0% | 76.4% |
| Peterborough | 38 | 1,585 | 4.9% | 76.3% |
| Plymouth | 88 | 2,270 | 4.4% | 77.3% |
| Portsmouth | 31 | 943 | 3.0% | 74.2% |
| Reading | 32 | 1,002 | 4.5% | 65.6% |
| Redbridge | 76 | 1,353 | 3.4% | 82.9% |
| Redcar and Cleveland | 43 | 1,356 | 4.0% | 79.1% |
| Richmond upon Thames | 45 | 1,247 | 3.7% | 84.4% |
| Rochdale | 61 | 1,624 | 4.2% | 57.4% |
| Rotherham | 84 | 2,614 | 4.8% | 77.4% |
| Rutland | 11 | 452 | 4.1% | 81.8% |
| Salford | 42 | 1,493 | 4.0% | 78.6% |
| Sandwell | 94 | 2,190 | 4.3% | 59.6% |
| Sefton | 111 | 3,527 | 5.2% | 76.6% |
| Sheffield | 115 | 4,234 | 4.3% | 80.0% |
| Shropshire | 118 | 3,873 | 4.4% | 69.5% |
| Slough | 16 | 570 | 3.5% | 50.0% |
| Solihull | 63 | 2,410 | 5.1% | 84.1% |
| Somerset | 197 | 6,304 | 4.2% | 84.3% |
| South Gloucestershire | 83 | 2,580 | 4.5% | 86.7% |
| South Tyneside | 34 | 1,340 | 4.1% | 85.3% |
| Southampton | 52 | 1,504 | 4.2% | 76.9% |
| Southend-on-Sea | 86 | 1,857 | 5.2% | 80.2% |
| Southwark | 13 | 521 | 1.8% | 76.9% |
| St. Helens | 41 | 1,411 | 3.6% | 80.5% |
| Staffordshire | 269 | 8,749 | 4.3% | 68.8% |
| Stockport | 67 | 2,677 | 4.4% | 67.2% |
| Stockton-on-Tees | 58 | 2,013 | 5.0% | 82.8% |
| Stoke-on-Trent | 84 | 2,703 | 5.9% | 72.6% |
| Suffolk | 196 | 8,155 | 4.3% | 70.9% |
| Sunderland | 87 | 2,690 | 4.5% | 95.4% |
| Surrey | 387 | 15,067 | 6.3% | 74.2% |
| Sutton | 69 | 1,365 | 4.2% | 88.4% |
| Swindon | 46 | 1,282 | 3.2% | 89.1% |
| Tameside | 35 | 1,415 | 3.4% | 71.4% |
| Telford and Wrekin | 40 | 1,326 | 3.8% | 67.5% |
| Thurrock | 27 | 732 | 3.0% | 85.2% |
| Torbay | 74 | 2,002 | 5.2% | 74.3% |
| Tower Hamlets | 10 | 387 | 2.0% | 90.0% |
| Trafford | 56 | 1,713 | 4.0% | 78.6% |
| Wakefield | 96 | 2,964 | 4.2% | 66.7% |
| Walsall | 72 | 2,069 | 4.1% | 56.9% |
| Waltham Forest | 46 | 1,026 | 3.4% | 89.1% |
| Wandsworth | 26 | 1,278 | 3.8% | 92.3% |
| Warrington | 56 | 2,133 | 5.0% | 75.0% |
| Warwickshire | 174 | 6,191 | 4.8% | 72.4% |
| West Berkshire | 47 | 1,252 | 3.7% | 76.6% |
| West Northamptonshire | 108 | 3,451 | 4.5% | 63.9% |
| West Sussex | 341 | 10,961 | 5.1% | 76.8% |
| Westminster | 9 | 488 | 1.8% | 77.8% |
| Westmorland and Furness | 59 | 1,931 | 3.2% | 81.4% |
| Wigan | 58 | 2,354 | 3.5% | 82.8% |
| Wiltshire | 165 | 5,212 | 4.3% | 85.5% |
| Windsor and Maidenhead | 42 | 1,887 | 6.3% | 66.7% |
| Wirral | 111 | 3,421 | 4.6% | 64.9% |
| Wokingham | 46 | 1,364 | 4.2% | 82.6% |
| Wolverhampton | 73 | 2,334 | 5.2% | 63.0% |
| Worcestershire | 178 | 6,732 | 4.6% | 76.4% |
| York | 42 | 1,939 | 4.8% | 64.3% |
Methodology and sources
Scope is CQC-registered care homes in England ('Care home?' = Y in the CQC HSCA Active Locations extract), which have a bed count and an overall CQC rating. Domiciliary care, supported living and other adult-social-care location types do not have bed counts and are outside this index (see the Care Provider Business Index for the Companies House incorporation view of the full care sector). Region and local authority are the CQC-assigned fields on each active location record. Population denominators are ONS mid-2024 (MYE24) local authority district and region population estimates, all ages and 65-and-over. Beds-per-100-over-65 is a density proxy: some care home beds serve working-age residents (learning disability, mental health, physical disability services), so it is not a literal elderly-bed-occupancy ratio. Closure/deactivation churn counts CQC 'HSCA End Date' deactivations of care homes in the trailing 12 months to 2026-07-23; a deactivation on the CQC register can reflect a change of registered provider or relocation as well as an outright closure, so churn should be read as registration turnover, not solely business failure.
Caveats
- England only. CQC does not regulate care homes in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.
- 14,877 active care home locations at pipeline pull date 2026-07-23; CQC's directory refreshes monthly and does not carry a single as-of date per file (individual rows show their last inspection publication date, which can be several years old for homes not recently re-inspected).
- 101 of the active care homes (0.7%) are flagged dormant (registered but not currently operating, e.g. a newly registered home not yet open); these are included in location and bed counts, which therefore slightly overstate current operating capacity.
- Beds-per-100-over-65 is a density proxy, not an occupancy or exact-need ratio: some care home beds serve working-age adults, not people aged 65 and over.
- Local-authority figures are shown only where the CQC-assigned local authority name matches an ONS mid-2024 population estimate; all local authorities with at least one active care home matched.
- Rating bands combine CQC's 'Not Rated', 'Insufficient evidence to rate' and blank values into a single 'Not yet rated' category (recently registered homes, or homes not yet inspected under the current framework).
- Care-desert and best-provided local authority lists require at least 5 active care homes in that local authority, to avoid single-home local authorities distorting a per-capita ratio.
- Closure/deactivation figures aggregate by region and local authority only. No individual care home or provider is named anywhere in this dataset or page.
Sources
- CQC HSCA Active Locations (directory with filters and ratings) (Care Quality Commission, Open Government Licence v3.0, monthly)
- CQC Deactivated Locations (Care Quality Commission, Open Government Licence v3.0, monthly)
- CQC ratings by domain (Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive, Well-led) (Care Quality Commission, Open Government Licence v3.0, monthly)
- Mid-2024 population estimates (MYE24), local authority districts, England (Office for National Statistics, Open Government Licence v3.0, Mid-2024 (published 2025))
Pull date: 23 Jul 2026. Churn window: 2025-07-23 to 2026-07-23. Refreshed periodically as CQC republishes its monthly extracts.
Download the full dataset: /research/uk-care-density-quality-index/data (CSV). See also the Care Provider Business Index for the Companies House incorporation view of the whole care sector.
Free to cite and republish with attribution to Care Home Tax. This page is a data summary and does not constitute regulatory, financial or care-quality advice on any individual provider.
Registering, buying or selling a care home?
New providers need a CQC-compliant financial viability statement before registration; buyers and sellers need capital allowances, BADR and propco/opco structures sequenced correctly. We work with care operators on both.
Frequently asked questions
How many care home beds are there in England?
There are 480,491 beds across 14,797 CQC-registered care homes in England, based on the CQC HSCA Active Locations extract. That works out at 4.4% beds for every 100 people aged 65 and over, using ONS mid-2024 population estimates. Some of those beds serve working-age adults (learning disability, mental health and physical disability services), so the ratio is a density proxy rather than an exact elderly-occupancy figure.
What counts as a 'care desert' in this index?
A local authority with a low number of care home beds relative to its population aged 65 and over, restricted to local authorities with at least 5 active care homes so a single-home area cannot distort the per-capita figure. It measures registered bed capacity, not care quality or waiting times, and it names local authority areas only, never an individual care home or provider.
What share of care homes are rated Good or Outstanding by the CQC?
76.0% of active care homes hold an overall CQC rating of Good or Outstanding. 0.8% are rated Inadequate and 15.2% Requires improvement. A further 8.0% are not yet rated, typically because the location has recently registered or has not been inspected under the current framework.
Does this index name individual care homes?
No. Every figure on this page is aggregated by region or local authority. No individual care home, provider or registered manager is named or ranked anywhere in this dataset. That is a deliberate editorial rule, not a data limitation: CQC's own location-level data is public and OGL-licensed, but a named 'worst care homes' ranking is not something we publish.
What is care home closure churn and how is it measured?
We count CQC 'Location HSCA End Date' deactivations of care homes in the trailing 12 months to 2026-07-23, aggregated by region and local authority. A deactivation can reflect an outright closure, but it can also reflect a change of registered provider or a relocation, so the figure should be read as registration turnover rather than solely business failure. Nationally, 758 care home locations were deactivated in the trailing 12 months, representing 23,319 beds.
Where does this data come from?
Three CQC extracts (HSCA Active Locations with filters and ratings, Deactivated Locations, and ratings by domain), published under the Open Government Licence v3.0, cross-referenced with the Office for National Statistics' mid-2024 (MYE24) population estimates for local authority districts and regions in England, also OGL-licensed. CQC data covers England only; it does not regulate care homes in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.