Where health, beauty & pharmacy is growing in the UK
10,732 health, beauty & pharmacy branded outlets across 38 brands are tracked in the UK in the November 2026 release. Glasgow City has the most, with 149; the top 25 local areas together hold 2,377 (22% of outlets with a mapped local area). The largest like-for-like net gain since the previous release is in City of Edinburgh (+15).
Which local areas have the most health, beauty & pharmacy outlets?
| # | Local area | Outlets | Brands present | Per 10,000 residents |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Glasgow City | 149 | 25: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Clarins, Superdrug, Holland & Barrett | - |
| 2 | Westminster | 145 | 29: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Holland & Barrett, Benefit Cosmetics, Clarins | 6.9 |
| 3 | Birmingham | 142 | 26: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Holland & Barrett, Boots Opticians, Superdrug | 1.2 |
| 4 | City of Edinburgh | 141 | 27: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Holland & Barrett, Superdrug, Boots Opticians | - |
| 5 | Leeds | 138 | 29: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Well Pharmacy, Superdrug, Boots Opticians | 1.6 |
| 6 | Cornwall | 114 | 16: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Day Lewis Pharmacy, Superdrug, Boots Opticians | 2.0 |
| 7 | ONS area E06000066 | 106 | 19: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Superdrug, Day Lewis Pharmacy, Boots Opticians | 1.8 |
| 8 | ONS area E06000065 | 102 | 22: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Day Lewis Pharmacy, Holland & Barrett, Boots Opticians | 1.6 |
| 9 | Sheffield | 99 | 28: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Well Pharmacy, Holland & Barrett, Superdrug | 1.7 |
| 10 | Belfast | 93 | 23: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Gordons Chemists, Holland & Barrett, Well Pharmacy | - |
| 11 | Cheshire East | 86 | 18: Well Pharmacy, Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Boots Opticians, Holland & Barrett | 2.0 |
| 12 | Camden | 84 | 20: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Holland & Barrett, Superdrug, Boots Opticians | 3.9 |
| 13 | Wiltshire | 84 | 17: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Superdrug, Boots Opticians, Holland & Barrett | 1.6 |
| 14 | Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole | 82 | 23: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Boots Opticians, Day Lewis Pharmacy, Holland & Barrett | 2.0 |
| 15 | Buckinghamshire | 81 | 21: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Boots Opticians, Holland & Barrett, Superdrug | 1.4 |
| 16 | County Durham | 81 | 16: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Well Pharmacy, Superdrug, Vision Express | 1.5 |
| 17 | Manchester | 80 | 27: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Holland & Barrett, Superdrug, Jo Malone London | 1.4 |
| 18 | Liverpool | 77 | 25: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Superdrug, Clarins, Benefit Cosmetics | 1.5 |
| 19 | Cheshire West and Chester | 76 | 24: Well Pharmacy, Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Boots Opticians, Clarins | 2.0 |
| 20 | Bristol, City of | 70 | 24: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Boots Opticians, Well Pharmacy, Benefit Cosmetics | 1.4 |
| 21 | Bromley | 70 | 24: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Boots Opticians, Superdrug, Headmasters | 2.1 |
| 22 | Cardiff | 70 | 23: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Well Pharmacy, Knights Pharmacy, Benefit Cosmetics | 1.8 |
| 23 | South Lanarkshire | 70 | 11: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Superdrug, Boots Opticians, Holland & Barrett | - |
| 24 | Wandsworth | 69 | 25: Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Holland & Barrett, Superdrug, Headmasters | 2.0 |
| 25 | Doncaster | 68 | 18: Weldricks Pharmacy, Boots, Boots Pharmacy, Superdrug, Well Pharmacy | 2.1 |
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, beauty & pharmacy outlets?
| # | Local area | Net change | Previous release | This release | All outlets now |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | City of Edinburgh | +15 | 87 | 102 | 141 |
| 2 | Birmingham | +12 | 100 | 112 | 142 |
| 3 | Leeds | +11 | 94 | 105 | 138 |
| 4 | Belfast | +9 | 62 | 71 | 93 |
| 5 | Cheshire East | +9 | 61 | 70 | 86 |
| 6 | Buckinghamshire | +9 | 49 | 58 | 81 |
| 7 | Glasgow City | +8 | 106 | 114 | 149 |
| 8 | Cornwall | +8 | 73 | 81 | 114 |
| 9 | ONS area E06000066 | +8 | 68 | 76 | 106 |
| 10 | Sheffield | +8 | 72 | 80 | 99 |
| 11 | Bristol, City of | +8 | 46 | 54 | 70 |
| 12 | Barnet | +8 | 44 | 52 | 67 |
| 13 | Liverpool | +7 | 54 | 61 | 77 |
| 14 | Bromley | +7 | 46 | 53 | 70 |
| 15 | City of London | +7 | 31 | 38 | 49 |
Net change in outlets for brands present in both releases, for local areas with at least 5 outlets in the sector. 6 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, beauty & pharmacy sector of the h3hex data store, November 2026 release (scrape window 30 Oct - 3 Nov 2026), page built 2026-11-06. Closed, pre-opening and head-office records are left out. 27 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, beauty & pharmacy store lists brand by brand or as a sector bundle.