Where optical goods retailing is growing in the UK
1,517 optical goods retailing outlets across 4 brands are in the h3hex Data Store in the November 2026 release. In the local-area tables Birmingham has the most, with 29, or 0.2 per 10,000 residents; the top 25 local areas together hold 330 (22% of outlets with a mapped local area). The largest like-for-like net gain since the previous release is in Dorset (+1).
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 optical goods retailing outlets?
| # | Local area | Outlets | Brands present | Per 10,000 residents |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Birmingham | 29 | 4: Boots Opticians, Scrivens, Vision Express, Optical Express | 0.2 |
| 2 | Buckinghamshire | 18 | 4: Boots Opticians, Vision Express, Scrivens, Optical Express | 0.3 |
| 3 | Leeds | 17 | 4: Boots Opticians, Vision Express, Scrivens, Optical Express | 0.2 |
| 4 | Cornwall | 16 | 4: Boots Opticians, Vision Express, Scrivens, Optical Express | 0.3 |
| 5 | Glasgow City | 16 | 3: Boots Opticians, Vision Express, Optical Express | - |
| 6 | Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole | 15 | 4: Boots Opticians, Vision Express, Scrivens, Optical Express | 0.4 |
| 7 | Cheshire East | 15 | 4: Boots Opticians, Vision Express, Optical Express, Scrivens | 0.4 |
| 8 | ONS area E06000066 | 14 | 3: Boots Opticians, Vision Express, Optical Express | 0.2 |
| 9 | Wiltshire | 14 | 4: Boots Opticians, Vision Express, Optical Express, Scrivens | 0.3 |
| 10 | Barnet | 13 | 3: Boots Opticians, Vision Express, Scrivens | 0.3 |
| 11 | Bristol, City of | 13 | 4: Boots Opticians, Scrivens, Vision Express, Optical Express | 0.3 |
| 12 | City of Edinburgh | 13 | 3: Boots Opticians, Vision Express, Optical Express | - |
| 13 | West Suffolk | 13 | 4: Boots Opticians, Scrivens, Vision Express, Optical Express | 0.7 |
| 14 | Dorset | 12 | 3: Scrivens, Boots Opticians, Vision Express | 0.3 |
| 15 | ONS area E06000065 | 12 | 3: Boots Opticians, Vision Express, Scrivens | 0.2 |
| 16 | Bromley | 11 | 2: Boots Opticians, Vision Express | 0.3 |
| 17 | North Northamptonshire | 11 | 3: Boots Opticians, Vision Express, Scrivens | 0.3 |
| 18 | Sheffield | 11 | 4: Boots Opticians, Vision Express, Scrivens, Optical Express | 0.2 |
| 19 | Camden | 10 | 3: Boots Opticians, Vision Express, Scrivens | 0.5 |
| 20 | Hounslow | 10 | 4: Boots Opticians, Vision Express, Optical Express, Scrivens | 0.3 |
| 21 | Trafford | 10 | 4: Boots Opticians, Vision Express, Optical Express, Scrivens | 0.4 |
| 22 | Westminster | 10 | 4: Boots Opticians, Optical Express, Scrivens, Vision Express | 0.5 |
| 23 | Coventry | 9 | 3: Boots Opticians, Vision Express, Optical Express | 0.2 |
| 24 | Fife | 9 | 3: Boots Opticians, Vision Express, Optical Express | - |
| 25 | Havering | 9 | 2: Vision Express, Boots Opticians | 0.3 |
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 optical goods retailing outlets?
| # | Local area | Net change | Previous release | This release | All outlets now |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dorset | +1 | 8 | 9 | 12 |
| 2 | Milton Keynes | +1 | 4 | 5 | 8 |
| 3 | Buckinghamshire | 0 | 7 | 7 | 18 |
| 4 | Leeds | 0 | 10 | 10 | 17 |
| 5 | Cornwall | 0 | 8 | 8 | 16 |
| 6 | Glasgow City | 0 | 9 | 9 | 16 |
| 7 | Cheshire East | 0 | 8 | 8 | 15 |
| 8 | Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole | 0 | 8 | 8 | 15 |
| 9 | Wiltshire | 0 | 8 | 8 | 14 |
| 10 | ONS area E06000066 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 14 |
| 11 | Bristol, City of | 0 | 7 | 7 | 13 |
| 12 | West Suffolk | 0 | 7 | 7 | 13 |
| 13 | Barnet | 0 | 6 | 6 | 13 |
| 14 | City of Edinburgh | 0 | 5 | 5 | 13 |
| 15 | ONS area E06000065 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 12 |
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 Optical goods retailing 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. 3 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 optical goods retailing store lists brand by brand or as a sector bundle.
More health sectors
- All Health7,545 outlets · 14 brands
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How many optical goods retailing outlets are there in the UK?
h3hex tracks 1,517 branded optical goods retailing outlets from 4 brands in the UK as at the November 2026 release. In the local-area tables, Birmingham has the most, with 29.
Which optical goods retailing brands are growing?
No optical goods retailing brand present in both releases added outlets between the previous release and the November 2026 release.
Which optical goods retailing brands have the most UK outlets?
Boots Opticians (713), Vision Express (533) and Scrivens (163), as at the November 2026 release.