Care home facts & stats | Settings, population & workforce

With people living longer than ever before, the UK’s ageing population is having a huge impact on social care provision, including an increased need for care home spaces.

If you’re looking for care for yourself or a loved one and want more information about the sector, carehome.co.uk has compiled the latest care home statistics by country, including:

• Number of care homes (residential and nursing homes)
• Care home population
• Number of people with dementia living in care homes
• Number of people working in care homes

How many care homes are there in the UK?

There are about 16,566 care homes in the UK. Around 70 per cent of care homes offer residential care, while nursing homes make up around 30 per cent of the total number of care homes.

	UK	England	Wales	Scotland	Northern Ireland
Total	16,566	14,082	999	973	423
Residential care homes	11,525	10,061	759	464	182
Nursing homes	5,041	4,021	240	509	241

Care home population: How many people live in care homes in the UK?

The most recent data shows that nearly half a million people live in care homes in the UK.

	UK	England	Wales	Scotland	Northern Ireland
Total	441,479	372,035	24,178	33,352	11,914
Source		ONS 2023	Statista 2022	PHS 2022	DoH 2023

How many care home residents are funded by their local authority?

Care home provision

Care homes across the UK provide care for different requirements. Where some will specialise in one area, others are multi-disciplinary, catering for residents with a range of needs.

	UK	England	Wales	Scotland	Northern Ireland
Older person care	11,718	9931	582	803	339
Learning disability	6345	5459	455	255	147
Dementia	9518	8197	394	690	210

Funding

Old age/elderly care homes consistently have the highest amount of self-funders (people who pay for their own care) than other types of care home.

In 2023, just under 50 per cent of residents in old age/elderly care homes were self-funders compared to 2 per cent of residents living in care homes for young adults.  

Source: ONS

How many people with dementia in the UK live in care homes?

Around 70 per cent of all care home residents have dementia or severe memory problems, according to the Alzheimer’s Society.

Using the care home population figure above, an estimated 309,035 people living in a residential or nursing home in the UK have some form of dementia.

Number of people working in care homes

The UK care home workforce totals around 750,000 people.

	UK	England (2024)	Wales (2022)	Scotland (2022)	Northern Ireland (2021)
Total	787,992	692,600	29,100	51,040	15,252
Source		Skills for Care	Social Care Wales	SSSC	Health NI

Care home population forecast

Savills predicts UK will need an additional 144,000 care home beds over the next 10 years to keep pace with population growth.

Since 2020, around half of all new care homes have been built in London and in the south and east of England. Only 15% of new care home beds have been built in Northern England. Scotland and Wales have also seen fairly limited investment.

To read about care home trends click here.