Dementia Care Gap UK 2026 — Specialist Location Capacity per Older Resident
Age-adjusted analysis of dementia-specialist care-home supply. Primary metric: total beds at CQC dementia-specialist locations per 100 residents aged 75+. CQC publishes a location-level dementia flag, not a bed-level one, so this is an upper bound on specialist capacity — true dementia-only provision is lower.
National distribution (beds at specialist locations /100 age 75+)
Median
7.1
Share dementia of all beds
55.8%
Severe ceiling (p10)
5.0
Well-supplied floor (p75)
8.2
Based on 151 LAs with adequate bed coverage and dementia provision.
30 LAs with lowest dementia-specialist location capacity
| # | Local authority | Region | Pop. 75+ | Beds at specialist locations | /100 age 75+ | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hackney | London | 10,500 | 196 | 1.9 | Severe |
| 2 | Haringey | London | 12,200 | 233 | 1.9 | Severe |
| 3 | Lambeth | London | 13,200 | 356 | 2.7 | Severe |
| 4 | Kensington and Chelsea | London | 10,200 | 354 | 3.5 | Severe |
| 5 | Camden | London | 11,500 | 412 | 3.6 | Severe |
| 6 | Southwark | London | 13,300 | 475 | 3.6 | Severe |
| 7 | Brent | London | 18,700 | 690 | 3.7 | Severe |
| 8 | Newham | London | 11,700 | 495 | 4.2 | Severe |
| 9 | Westminster | London | 11,400 | 483 | 4.2 | Severe |
| 10 | Hounslow | London | 15,600 | 676 | 4.3 | Severe |
| 11 | Tower Hamlets | London | 8,100 | 350 | 4.3 | Severe |
| 12 | Lewisham | London | 14,600 | 639 | 4.4 | Severe |
| 13 | Greenwich | London | 12,900 | 598 | 4.6 | Severe |
| 14 | Cornwall | South West | 76,800 | 3,528 | 4.6 | Severe |
| 15 | Dorset | South West | 62,758 | 3,118 | 5.0 | Severe |
| 16 | Swindon | South West | 18,888 | 937 | 5.0 | Severe |
| 17 | Redbridge | London | 18,600 | 946 | 5.1 | Undersupply |
| 18 | West Berkshire | South East | 16,650 | 841 | 5.1 | Undersupply |
| 19 | Bromley | London | 29,600 | 1,539 | 5.2 | Undersupply |
| 20 | St Helens | North West | 19,200 | 989 | 5.2 | Undersupply |
| 21 | Calderdale | Yorkshire & The Humber | 19,640 | 1,019 | 5.2 | Undersupply |
| 22 | Bolton | North West | 24,800 | 1,305 | 5.3 | Undersupply |
| 23 | Thurrock | East of England | 11,652 | 623 | 5.3 | Undersupply |
| 24 | Barking and Dagenham | London | 10,500 | 569 | 5.4 | Undersupply |
| 25 | Sutton | London | 16,600 | 912 | 5.5 | Undersupply |
| 26 | Ealing | London | 21,600 | 1,230 | 5.7 | Undersupply |
| 27 | Halton | North West | 11,145 | 630 | 5.7 | Undersupply |
| 28 | Westmorland and Furness | North West | 31,012 | 1,763 | 5.7 | Undersupply |
| 29 | Salford | North West | 18,100 | 1,052 | 5.8 | Undersupply |
| 30 | Portsmouth | South East | 13,700 | 799 | 5.8 | Undersupply |
Best-supplied LAs (dementia-specialist locations)
| Local authority | Dementia beds | /100 age 75+ |
|---|---|---|
| Kingston upon Thames | 1,471 | 12.6 |
| Middlesbrough | 1,646 | 12.5 |
| Leicester | 2,238 | 11.1 |
| Stoke-on-Trent | 2,360 | 11.1 |
| Windsor and Maidenhead | 1,623 | 10.3 |
| Surrey | 11,826 | 10.3 |
| Oxfordshire | 6,226 | 10.1 |
| East Riding of Yorkshire | 4,453 | 9.9 |
| Darlington | 1,054 | 9.9 |
| Peterborough | 1,474 | 9.7 |
Regional rollup
| Region | Dementia beds | Pop. 75+ | /100 age 75+ |
|---|---|---|---|
| London | 29,234 | 505,100 | 5.8 |
| South West | 41,084 | 653,296 | 6.3 |
| North West | 48,560 | 692,177 | 7.0 |
| East Midlands | 35,552 | 467,829 | 7.6 |
| East of England | 47,260 | 605,628 | 7.8 |
| Yorkshire & The Humber | 40,578 | 516,608 | 7.9 |
| West Midlands | 43,104 | 539,781 | 8.0 |
| South East | 71,388 | 881,605 | 8.1 |
| North East | 23,161 | 257,982 | 9.0 |
Legacy secondary — dementia homes per 10,000 total population
Retained for continuity. Not the primary measure.
| Local authority | Dementia homes | /10k total (legacy) | Specialist-location beds /100 age 75+ (primary) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hackney | 4 | 0.2 | 1.9 |
| Haringey | 4 | 0.2 | 1.9 |
| Lambeth | 6 | 0.2 | 2.7 |
| Newham | 7 | 0.2 | 4.2 |
| Tower Hamlets | 6 | 0.2 | 4.3 |
| Camden | 7 | 0.3 | 3.6 |
| Greenwich | 10 | 0.3 | 4.6 |
| Southwark | 8 | 0.3 | 3.6 |
| Brent | 13 | 0.4 | 3.7 |
| Hammersmith and Fulham | 8 | 0.4 | 6.6 |
Frequently asked questions
What does this metric actually measure?
Total beds at CQC locations that list dementia as a specialism or service type, divided by the 75+ resident population. Important caveat: CQC does not publish a bed-level dementia flag, only a location-level flag. A location that mixes dementia and non-dementia residents is counted at its full bed capacity, so the number is an upper bound — true dementia-specialist capacity will be lower. We present it here as an age-adjusted indicator of the supply of dementia-capable locations, not as a count of dementia-only beds.
How many specialist dementia locations are there?
8,264 of 14,807 CQC-registered care homes list dementia as a specialism — 55.8% of all homes.
Which area has the lowest specialist location capacity?
Hackney in London has the lowest capacity on our primary metric, at 1.9 beds at dementia-specialist locations per 100 residents aged 75+. That represents 196 beds across dementia-specialist locations for 10,500 residents aged 75+.
What counts as a dementia specialist location?
A CQC location qualifies when it lists dementia as a specialism or service type in its registration. Not every home that accepts residents with dementia is registered as a specialist — the specialist designation indicates a dedicated focus.
Data sources: CQC Care Directory (OGL v3.0); ONS 2022 mid-year estimates for 75+ denominators. The dementia flag is derived from the CQC specialism/service-type fields. See the full methodology.