Where health is growing in the UK
7,545 health outlets across 14 brands are in the h3hex Data Store in the November 2026 release. In the local-area tables Birmingham has the most, with 99, or 0.8 per 10,000 residents; the top 25 local areas together hold 1,654 (22% of outlets with a mapped local area). The largest like-for-like net gain since the previous release is in Birmingham (+11).
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 health outlets?
| # | Local area | Outlets | Brands present | Per 10,000 residents |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Birmingham | 99 | 9: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Holland & Barrett, Boots Opticians, Scrivens | 0.8 |
| 2 | Leeds | 95 | 10: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Well Pharmacy, Boots Opticians, Holland & Barrett | 1.1 |
| 3 | Cornwall | 94 | 8: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Day Lewis Pharmacy, Boots Opticians, Holland & Barrett | 1.6 |
| 4 | Glasgow City | 84 | 7: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Holland & Barrett, Boots Opticians, Vision Express | - |
| 5 | City of Edinburgh | 81 | 7: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Holland & Barrett, Boots Opticians, Well Pharmacy | - |
| 6 | ONS area E06000066 | 81 | 8: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Day Lewis Pharmacy, Boots Opticians, Holland & Barrett | 1.4 |
| 7 | ONS area E06000065 | 77 | 8: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Day Lewis Pharmacy, Holland & Barrett, Boots Opticians | 1.2 |
| 8 | Westminster | 70 | 8: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Holland & Barrett, Boots Opticians, Optical Express | 3.3 |
| 9 | Cheshire East | 67 | 9: Well Pharmacy, Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Boots Opticians, Holland & Barrett | 1.6 |
| 10 | Wiltshire | 66 | 9: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Boots Opticians, Holland & Barrett, Vision Express | 1.3 |
| 11 | County Durham | 65 | 8: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Well Pharmacy, Vision Express, Holland & Barrett | 1.2 |
| 12 | Belfast | 63 | 8: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Gordons Chemists, Holland & Barrett, Well Pharmacy | - |
| 13 | South Lanarkshire | 62 | 7: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Boots Opticians, Holland & Barrett, Optical Express | - |
| 14 | Sheffield | 61 | 10: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Well Pharmacy, Holland & Barrett, Boots Opticians | 1.0 |
| 15 | Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole | 57 | 9: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Boots Opticians, Day Lewis Pharmacy, Holland & Barrett | 1.4 |
| 16 | Northumberland | 57 | 6: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Well Pharmacy, Boots Opticians, Holland & Barrett | 1.7 |
| 17 | Buckinghamshire | 56 | 7: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Boots Opticians, Holland & Barrett, Vision Express | 1.0 |
| 18 | Camden | 56 | 7: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Holland & Barrett, Boots Opticians, Vision Express | 2.6 |
| 19 | Dorset | 56 | 8: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Scrivens, Well Pharmacy, Holland & Barrett | 1.4 |
| 20 | Doncaster | 55 | 8: Weldricks Pharmacy, Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Well Pharmacy, Boots Opticians | 1.7 |
| 21 | North Lanarkshire | 55 | 7: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Boots Opticians, Vision Express, Well Pharmacy | - |
| 22 | Fife | 52 | 7: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Well Pharmacy, Boots Opticians, Holland & Barrett | - |
| 23 | Bristol, City of | 49 | 9: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Boots Opticians, Well Pharmacy, Holland & Barrett | 1.0 |
| 24 | East Riding of Yorkshire | 48 | 7: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Holland & Barrett, Scrivens, Boots Opticians | 1.3 |
| 25 | Rhondda Cynon Taf | 48 | 6: Knights Pharmacy, Well Pharmacy, Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Holland & Barrett | 2.0 |
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 health outlets?
| # | Local area | Net change | Previous release | This release | All outlets now |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Birmingham | +11 | 59 | 70 | 99 |
| 2 | Buckinghamshire | +9 | 24 | 33 | 56 |
| 3 | Cheshire East | +8 | 43 | 51 | 67 |
| 4 | Belfast | +8 | 36 | 44 | 63 |
| 5 | Leeds | +7 | 59 | 66 | 95 |
| 6 | Cornwall | +7 | 54 | 61 | 94 |
| 7 | ONS area E06000066 | +7 | 45 | 52 | 81 |
| 8 | City of Edinburgh | +7 | 42 | 49 | 81 |
| 9 | Glasgow City | +6 | 46 | 52 | 84 |
| 10 | Sheffield | +6 | 38 | 44 | 61 |
| 11 | Bromley | +6 | 22 | 28 | 44 |
| 12 | Hillingdon | +6 | 19 | 25 | 42 |
| 13 | ONS area E06000065 | +5 | 46 | 51 | 77 |
| 14 | Camden | +5 | 29 | 34 | 56 |
| 15 | North Lanarkshire | +5 | 26 | 31 | 55 |
Net change in outlets for brands present in both releases, for local areas with at least 5 outlets in the sector. 2 brands in this sector first appear in this release and are 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 Health 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. 5 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 health store lists brand by brand or as a sector bundle.
Health by sector
- Community pharmacy5,305 outlets · 9 brands
- Optical goods retailing1,517 outlets · 4 brands
How many health outlets are there in the UK?
h3hex tracks 7,545 branded health outlets from 14 brands in the UK as at the November 2026 release. In the local-area tables, Birmingham has the most, with 99.
Which health 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 health brands have the most UK outlets?
Boots (2,329), Boots Pharmacy (1,770) and Holland & Barrett (723), as at the November 2026 release.