Finding
On the CQC register file dated 26 August 2026, 27,551 of 57,082 registered care services, 48.3%, had no website recorded, 7,078 of them home care agencies, and four of the five biggest care brands publish no fees, Whito's care research shows.
Source: Whito, whito.co.uk/research/uk-care-statistics. Free to quote with a link to this page.
Last Updated on September 8, 2026
Updated 4 September 2026. Compiled from Whito’s own published studies, each figure dated and linked to the study it came from. The register figures come from the CQC’s own published data file, read and measured by Whito.
This page folds every care sector figure from across Whito’s 150 published studies into one place. The register figures were computed by Whito from the CQC’s own published file; the brand figures come from Whito’s manual comparison of the five biggest care brands. Each carries its date and source below.
27,551 of the 57,082 care services on the CQC register, 48.3%, have no website recorded. Among England’s home care agencies the rate is 48.8%. And four of the five biggest care brands in the country publish no fees at all.
The key figures
Sources: the CQC care directory file dated 26 August 2026, measured by Whito, and Whito’s August 2026 care brand comparison. Each figure is sourced individually below.
The register gap
1. 27,551 of the 57,082 care services on the CQC register, 48.3%, had no website recorded on the register file dated 26 August 2026. Half the sector gives the register no website to show.
Source: Whito’s CQC register study, from the CQC’s published care directory file dated 26 August 2026.
2. 7,078 of England’s 14,509 registered home care agencies, 48.8%, have no website on the register. The home care rate sits above the sector-wide 48.3%.
Source: Whito’s CQC register study, 26 August 2026 file.
3. The register understates the sector. When Whito spot-checked ten blank home care entries, three had a working website the register did not hold. The fix is one email to the CQC, and Whito’s guide walks through it.
Source: Whito’s CQC register study, spot-check of 26 August 2026; the how-to is at getting your website onto your CQC profile page.
The quotable version
Half of England’s registered care sector has no website on its own regulator’s file: 27,551 of 57,082 services, including 7,078 home care agencies.
Free to quote with a link. See “How to cite this page” below.
How the biggest care brands market themselves
4. Four of Britain’s five biggest care brands will not tell you the price. The one brand that publishes real numbers, worked weekly examples such as £231 a week for seven hours of personal care, tops Whito’s marketing comparison with an 8.3 average across seven channels.
Source: Whito’s care brand leaderboard, reviewed manually across seven channels, August 2026.
5. The five biggest care brands hold over 90,000 reviews between them on carehome.co.uk and homecare.co.uk, the platforms families use when comparing care. The largest single count is a 9.7 from 25,061 reviews; the leading home care group holds a 9.5 from 12,954. Four of the five publish no fees beside them.
Source: Whito’s care brand leaderboard, checked August 2026.
6. Third-party estimates put average residential care around £1,400 a week and nursing care around £1,550, while the leading home care brand publishes worked examples such as £231 a week for seven hours of personal care. Costs vary widely by region and need.
Source: third-party estimates and published provider examples, as cited and dated in Whito’s care brand leaderboard, checked August 2026.
What this means for a care business
7. The playbook the data points to costs time rather than money: publish a typical weekly cost with honest caveats, build reviews on carehome.co.uk or homecare.co.uk at the natural moments, put your CQC rating and report link on your homepage, and make sure the register holds your website.
Source: the channel evidence in Whito’s care brand leaderboard and the register gap measured in the CQC register study.
Every Whito study behind this page
- The CQC register study. 57,082 services measured from the regulator’s own file, the 48.3% website gap, and the by-service-type split. August 2026.
- UK Care Homes 2026. The register cut for care homes only, 6,768 of 14,892 with no website on the file dated 2 September 2026, joined to CQC ratings, plus a 20-town panel of what Google AI Mode names. September 2026.
- How to get your website onto your CQC profile page. The one-email fix, from the CQC’s own guidance, with the safeguarding caution. August 2026.
- The care brand leaderboard. Five national brands scored across seven marketing channels, with the pricing candour finding. August 2026.
The figures above cover all registered care services. Care homes on their own are measured separately in UK Care Homes 2026, which cuts the register to care homes, joins it to CQC ratings, and checks what Google AI Mode tells families who ask for a trustworthy home.
Care providers can be found and verified at the Whito home care directory, where businesses are checked against the register before they are listed.
The care sector file
Whito builds the full care dataset to order: the register-gap data cut for your region or service type, the verification method, and the channel evidence behind the leaderboard. Published sector editions are £1,280; built-to-order work is quoted on enquiry.
Method and known limits
This page is a compilation, not a new collection. The register figures were computed by Whito from the CQC’s published care directory file dated 26 August 2026 and will drift as the register is updated; the CQC file is refreshed regularly and this page states its file date rather than pretending to be live. The brand comparison scores are Whito’s own manual review, relative to the other brands in that set, using publicly visible activity only. Where a figure is a third-party estimate rather than a Whito measurement, the entry says so. Nothing here has been restated from another statistics site.
Corrections are noted on the page with a date, never quietly edited.
How to cite this page
Whito, “UK Care Sector Statistics 2026”, whito.co.uk, updated 4 September 2026. Any figure on this page may be quoted with a link to this page or to the underlying study named beside the figure.
Common questions
How many care services are registered with the CQC?
57,082 care services were on the CQC register on the file dated 26 August 2026, including 14,509 registered home care agencies in England, as measured by Whito from the CQC’s published care directory file.
How many UK care businesses have no website?
27,551 of the 57,082 care services on the CQC register, 48.3%, had no website recorded on the file dated 26 August 2026, including 7,078 of England’s 14,509 home care agencies. The true gap is slightly smaller than the register suggests: in a Whito spot-check of ten blank entries, three had a working website the register did not hold.
How much does care cost in the UK?
Third-party estimates put average residential care around £1,400 a week and nursing care around £1,550, while the leading home care brand publishes worked examples such as £231 a week for seven hours of personal care. Costs vary widely by region and need; figures as cited in Whito’s August 2026 care brand comparison.
Where do these statistics come from?
The register figures were computed by Whito from the CQC’s published care directory file dated 26 August 2026. The brand and review figures come from Whito’s August 2026 manual comparison of the five biggest care brands. Each figure on this page names its source and date.
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