Results from the 2011 Census include information about the number and characteristics of residents of communal establishments, including care homes.

This analysis focuses on residents of care homes, excluding staff and their families, combining the categories of care home with and without nursing in 2011 and ‘Nursing Home’ and ‘Residential Care Home’ in 2001.

Because of the differences in terminology used in 2011 and 2001 Censuses, a degree of caution should be applied when drawing conclusions based on direct comparisons of these data. This analysis builds on an earlier release from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), Changes in the Older Resident Care Home Population between 2001 and 2011, which looked at data for England and Wales as a whole.

Key Points

• Among English regions and Wales, the South East and North East had the highest proportion of usual residents aged 65 and over residing in care homes (3.5%) in 2011; the North East also had the highest proportion of those aged 85 and over (15.2%).
• The largest percentage change in the number of care home residents aged 65 and over between 2001 and 2011 was in London (9.4%), which outstripped the 65 and over usual resident population growth of 1.5%.
• The four local authorities with the highest proportion of usual residents aged 65 and over residing in care homes in 2011 were all in the South East, with Hastings (6.1%) the highest.
• Among those aged 85 and over, the top five local authorities all had more than a fifth of their population residing in care homes, with Rossendale (22.8%) the highest.
• Kensington and Chelsea was the only local authority where the proportion of men (3.7%) who were care home residents aged 65 and over was higher than that of women (2.2%) in 2011.