How many people work in adult social care in England?

Skills for Care, an official statistics producer since it was added to the Official Statistics Order in 2023, estimates there were 1.59 million filled posts in adult social care in England in 2025/26, up 1.4% on the year. Its report, published 24 June 2026, puts vacant posts at 96,000, a vacancy rate of 6.2%, the lowest since 2015/16.

The figures cover councils, independent care providers and people employed directly by those who receive care, and come from the Adult Social Care Workforce Data Set returned by employers.

Filled posts are not the same as people, because some workers hold more than one job, so check which a claim uses. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland publish their own care workforce figures. The NHS workforce is counted separately: see how many staff work for the NHS.

Official sources: Skills for Care: size and structure of the adult social care workforce · OSR: Skills for Care as an official statistics producer

The latest figure

The newest value is at Home Office. More on it: Work visas granted (UK).

When is the next figure out?

Quarterly in Immigration system statistics (next: 26 November 2026, covering the year ending September 2026). The Home Office also publishes monthly provisional figures on applications for key work routes. File URLs change each quarter

Every official release due in the next two weeks is on the release calendar.

Terms used in this answer

• No criteria to reside
  Hospital patients in England who are medically ready to leave but are still in a bed, often because care or support outside hospital is not yet arranged.
• Net migration
  Long-term immigration minus long-term emigration over a period, usually a rolling year. It measures the net change in population from migration.
• Rolling average
  An average recalculated each period over a fixed window, such as the latest three months or twelve months, to smooth out short-term ups and downs.
• Administrative data
  Information collected by organisations while running a service, such as tax records, benefit claims or hospital activity, and then used to produce statistics.
• Headline figure
  The main summary number that a statistical release leads with, such as annual CPI inflation or quarterly GDP growth. Other measures in the same release can tell a different story.

Where the figures come from

• Social care, childcare and children's social care statistics (DHSC, NHS England, Skills for Care, DfE, ONS and devolved bodies)
  Where to find official figures on care homes, social care staff, delayed discharge, unpaid carers, free childcare, childcare costs and children in care.

Related questions

• How many care homes and care home residents are there in the UK?
• How much do councils spend on adult social care?
• How many staff work for the NHS?

This answer says where the official figures are published and how they are defined. It gives no verdict on any claim. To report an error, send a correction request. More questions about social care and childcare: all Social care and childcare questions.