Care home statistics for Scotland
Support and services funded by local authorities in Scotland 2024/2025

About this release

This annual release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) provides information on care home services fully or partially funded by local authorities in Scotland throughout financial year 2024/25. This includes the number of people residing in a care home for at least one or more days during the year, the type of stay in a care home (short stay or long stay), the median length of stay,  demographic breakdown of care home residents and the type of service provider (for example, private, local authority, third sector) of the care home. It also reports on emergency healthcare (emergency hospital admissions, bed days and A&E attendances) received by long stay residents.

Not all areas were able to provide data on care home services and estimates are included in trends where possible. Further information on data completeness and estimation are provided in the dashboard.

The information in this publication differs to the information presented in PHS's Care Home Census which reports on the number of care homes, registered places, residents, admissions and discharges for all care home placements regardless of the source of funding.

Further information on the differences between this release and the Care home census are available.

Main points

• During 2024/25 there were an estimated 49,605 people who resided in a care home and were fully or partially funded by a local authority. This was similar to 2023/24 (49,545). The majority of people were long stay residents (stays lasting six weeks or more), and they accounted for an estimated 89% of the total.
• During 2024/25, the age group with the highest rate per 1,000 care home residents was 85 years and over. The rate for females was 348.9 compared to 128.2 for males. Females account for just over 73% and males just under 27% in this age group.
• Of all stays for residents in care homes during 2024/25 fully or partially funded by a local authority 82% were within a care home provided by the private sector.
• In 2024/25, there were 67.7% of long stay residents who received nursing care, this is similar to 2023/24 (67.0%).
• In quarter 4, January - March 2025, there were 10% of long stay residents who required at least one attendance at A&E whilst 8% required at least one emergency admission to hospital.

This is a line chart with three lines showing the number of care home residents by all stays combined, long stays and short stays from 2018/19 to 2024/25. The estimated number of all care home residents has decreased from 51,780 in 2018/19 to 49,605 in 2024/25. This was not a constant decrease over the time period. The number of care home residents increased from 2018/19 to 2019/20 (53,155) since then the number of residents decreased to 47,560 in 2021/22 which was likely caused by the COVID pandemic. The number of residents then increased to 49,785 in 2022/23. The number of residents has then remained fairly steady with a small decrease to 49,605 in 2024/25. The estimated number of short stay residents decreased overall from 7,120 in 2018/19 to 6,130 in 2024/25. This wasn’t a constant decrease over the full time period. The number of short stays increased from 2018/19 to 2019/20 (8,220). There was then a large decrease in the estimated number of short stays to 3,420 in 2020/21, likely due to the COVID pandemic since then the estimated number of short stays has increased to 6,130 in 2024/25. The estimated number of long stay residents has decreased slightly from 45,955 in 2018/29 to 44,140 in 2024/25. There was a small decrease in in 2020/21 and 2021/22 likely caused by the COVID pandemic when the number of long stays decreased to 43,760 in 2021/22.

Close

Number of people supported in a Care Home by type of stay, Scotland, 2018/19 - 2024/25

Background

Care homes provide accommodation and personal care for people who need extra support in their daily lives. Information is provided for people who reside in a care home and are fully or partially funded by the local authority. Note people entirely self-funding their care home placement are not included in these statistics. The data in this report differs from the care home census report as it reports on people who have been in a care home one or more days in the year and are fully or partially funded by the local authority whereas the care home census reports on all residents regardless of the source of funding.

Local authorities are one of the strategic partners delivering health and social care along with NHS boards and integration authorities. The analyses in the dashboard is presented by the local authority area funding the package of care. The care home placement could be outside the geographical boundary of the local authority.

In order to develop these statistics and due to the changes in the collection and processing, the figures in this release are classified as 'Official Statistics in development'. Further information on the data collection is available on the PHS website.

Scotland's social care system is undergoing a significant transformation, and changes are needed on how data is collected, shared and used to improve outcomes for people using and delivering services in Scotland. At the heart of this change is the Social Care Data Intelligence Programme Board (SCDIPB). The SCDIPB consists of representatives from across the social care sector who are leading efforts to modernise the national data landscape, including care home information. More details are available at Transforming social care data in Scotland.

To support this wider social care data modernisation programme, the care home census for 2025/26 has been paused to focus efforts on defining a care home minimum dataset and also on the wider programme of social care transformation work which aims to rationalise and improve the social care data landscape. 

Further information

The next release of this publication will be 2027.