Where community pharmacy is growing in the UK
5,305 community pharmacy outlets across 9 brands are in the h3hex Data Store in the November 2026 release. In the local-area tables Cornwall has the most, with 72, or 1.2 per 10,000 residents; the top 25 local areas together hold 1,227 (23% of outlets with a mapped local area). The largest like-for-like net gain since the previous release is in Birmingham (+12).
Outlet and brand counts are the Data Store's: every brand on sale, with every outlet in its file. The local-area and growth tables count the trading outlets in h3hex's master dataset that map to a local area, so their totals can be lower.
Which local areas have the most community pharmacy outlets?
| # | Local area | Outlets | Brands present | Per 10,000 residents |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cornwall | 72 | 3: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Day Lewis Pharmacy | 1.2 |
| 2 | Leeds | 72 | 5: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Well Pharmacy, Day Lewis Pharmacy, Kamsons Pharmacy | 0.9 |
| 3 | ONS area E06000066 | 61 | 4: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Day Lewis Pharmacy, Well Pharmacy | 1.0 |
| 4 | Glasgow City | 60 | 3: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Well Pharmacy | - |
| 5 | City of Edinburgh | 59 | 3: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Well Pharmacy | - |
| 6 | ONS area E06000065 | 57 | 4: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Day Lewis Pharmacy, Well Pharmacy | 0.9 |
| 7 | Birmingham | 56 | 4: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Knights Pharmacy, Well Pharmacy | 0.5 |
| 8 | County Durham | 54 | 4: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Well Pharmacy, Day Lewis Pharmacy | 1.0 |
| 9 | South Lanarkshire | 53 | 3: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Well Pharmacy | - |
| 10 | Belfast | 50 | 4: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Gordons Chemists, Well Pharmacy | - |
| 11 | Doncaster | 48 | 4: Weldricks Pharmacy, Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Well Pharmacy | 1.5 |
| 12 | Northumberland | 47 | 3: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Well Pharmacy | 1.4 |
| 13 | Cheshire East | 46 | 4: Well Pharmacy, Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Day Lewis Pharmacy | 1.1 |
| 14 | Wiltshire | 46 | 4: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Day Lewis Pharmacy, Well Pharmacy | 0.9 |
| 15 | North Lanarkshire | 45 | 3: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Well Pharmacy | - |
| 16 | Rhondda Cynon Taf | 45 | 4: Knights Pharmacy, Well Pharmacy, Boots, Boots Pharmacy | 1.9 |
| 17 | Sheffield | 44 | 5: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Well Pharmacy, Weldricks Pharmacy, Day Lewis Pharmacy | 0.8 |
| 18 | Westminster | 44 | 3: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Well Pharmacy | 2.1 |
| 19 | Dorset | 40 | 4: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Well Pharmacy, Day Lewis Pharmacy | 1.0 |
| 20 | East Riding of Yorkshire | 39 | 3: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Day Lewis Pharmacy | 1.1 |
| 21 | Fife | 39 | 3: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Well Pharmacy | - |
| 22 | Plymouth | 39 | 4: Well Pharmacy, Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Day Lewis Pharmacy | 1.4 |
| 23 | Cardiff | 38 | 4: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Well Pharmacy, Knights Pharmacy | 1.0 |
| 24 | Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole | 37 | 4: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Day Lewis Pharmacy, Kamsons Pharmacy | 0.9 |
| 25 | Camden | 36 | 3: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Well Pharmacy | 1.7 |
Local areas are local authority districts. Brands present shows how many brands have an outlet there and the five with the most.
Which local areas added the most community pharmacy outlets?
| # | Local area | Net change | Previous release | This release | All outlets now |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Birmingham | +12 | 26 | 38 | 56 |
| 2 | Buckinghamshire | +9 | 12 | 21 | 33 |
| 3 | City of Edinburgh | +8 | 27 | 35 | 59 |
| 4 | Belfast | +8 | 26 | 34 | 50 |
| 5 | Cheshire East | +8 | 29 | 37 | 46 |
| 6 | Cornwall | +7 | 40 | 47 | 72 |
| 7 | Leeds | +7 | 43 | 50 | 72 |
| 8 | ONS area E06000066 | +7 | 33 | 40 | 61 |
| 9 | Glasgow City | +6 | 29 | 35 | 60 |
| 10 | Sheffield | +6 | 26 | 32 | 44 |
| 11 | Hillingdon | +6 | 11 | 17 | 30 |
| 12 | Bromley | +6 | 14 | 20 | 29 |
| 13 | ONS area E06000065 | +5 | 33 | 38 | 57 |
| 14 | North Lanarkshire | +5 | 21 | 26 | 45 |
| 15 | Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole | +5 | 20 | 25 | 37 |
Net change in outlets for brands present in both releases, for local areas with at least 5 outlets in the sector. 1 brand in this sector first appears in this release and is left out of the growth table, so that adding a brand to the data is never counted as an area growing.
How these figures are made
Counts are h3hex's own store-by-store record of each brand's published UK locations for the brands listed in the Community pharmacy sector of the h3hex data store, November 2026 release (scrape window 30 Oct - 3 Nov 2026), page built 2026-11-12. Closed, pre-opening and head-office records are left out. 2 outlets with no mappable postcode are counted in the totals but not in the local-area tables. 4 districts created in 2023 are shown by their ONS code because the postcode lookup used here carries no name for them. Net change compares this release with the 29 October 2026 edition of the same dataset and reflects openings and closures as well as improved coverage of each brand's own locator. Resident population is Census 2021 usual-resident population by output area, summed to local authority district through the ONS postcode-to-output-area lookup (May 2024). The population table does not join to the lookup for districts in Northern Ireland and Scotland, so outlets per 10,000 residents is shown as - for them.
Use the data
Prospect site reports assess a single address against these brands, and the data store sells the community pharmacy store lists brand by brand or as a sector bundle.
More health sectors
- All Health7,545 outlets · 14 brands
- Optical goods retailing1,517 outlets · 4 brands
How many community pharmacy outlets are there in the UK?
h3hex tracks 5,305 branded community pharmacy outlets from 9 brands in the UK as at the November 2026 release. In the local-area tables, Cornwall has the most, with 72.
Which community pharmacy brands are growing?
Between the previous release and the November 2026 release, the brands adding the most outlets were Boots (+604) and Knights Pharmacy (+7).
Which community pharmacy brands have the most UK outlets?
Boots (2,329), Boots Pharmacy (1,770) and Well Pharmacy (626), as at the November 2026 release.