Long-term care spans home-based support, residential care, nursing homes, adult day services, hospice, rehabilitation, and specialized hospitals. The following U.S. statistics make the population, setting, period, and measurement type explicit, because daily residents, annual patients, provider counts, survey estimates, and projected future need are not interchangeable.
Key Long-Term Care Statistics
The most useful high-level figures include:
- In 2020, about 68,150 paid and regulated post-acute and long-term care providers operated in the United States.
- In 2020, the seven provider sectors served more than 7.3 million people in the United States, combining daily residents with annual service users.
- In 2020, about 1,294,800 people were daily nursing-home residents in the United States.
- In 2020, about 818,800 people lived in residential care communities on a given day in the United States.
- In 2020, home health agencies cared for and discharged about 2,977,900 patients in the United States.
- In 2020, hospices served about 1,534,600 U.S. patients.
- In 2024, the national median annual cost of a U.S. private nursing-home room was $127,750.
- In 2024, the national median annual cost of a semi-private U.S. nursing-home room was $111,325.
- In 2024, the national median annual cost of assisted living was $70,800 in the United States.
- Among Americans turning 65 in 2022, an estimated 56% will develop a disability serious enough to require long-term services and supports.
- In the 2024 report context, more than 53 million unpaid family caregivers provided long-term services and supports in U.S. homes and communities.
- In 2022, about 1,016,400 residents lived in U.S. residential care communities on a given day.
- In 2022, 53% of U.S. residential care community residents were age 85 or older.
- In 2022, 62% of U.S. residential care community residents needed help with three or more activities of daily living.
- In 2022, high blood pressure was reported for 58% of U.S. residential care community residents.
- In 2020, the West had 27.5 residential-care-community beds per 1,000 U.S. residents age 65 and older.
- In 2022, 72.9% of U.S. adult day services centers operated onsite only.
Contents
- Long-term care providers and service capacity
- Long-term care users across settings
- Long-term care costs and spending trends
- Disability risk and unpaid caregiving
- Resident needs, chronic conditions, and outcomes
- Access, staffing pressure, and regional differences
Long-Term Care Provider Statistics and Service Capacity
The CDC’s Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Providers and Services Users in the United States, 2020 counted paid and regulated providers across seven sectors. It is a sector-based picture of formal capacity, not a census of informal or unregulated care.
- About 68,150 providers operated in the United States in 2020.
- Residential care communities represented 44.9% of providers; nursing homes represented 22.5%.
- Home health agencies represented 16.7% of providers, while hospices represented 7.6%.
- Adult day services centers represented 6.0%, inpatient rehabilitation facilities 1.8%, and long-term care hospitals 0.5%.
These percentages describe provider-sector shares, not shares of residents, patients, capacity, or spending. The source’s seven-sector framework also means that informal family support is outside this provider total.
Source: CDC, Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Providers and Services Users in the United States, 2020.
Long-Term Care Users Across Care Settings
The same CDC report estimated more than 7.3 million people served across the seven sectors in 2020. That total combines daily residents with annual patients and service users, so it should not be interpreted as unique people: one person may appear in different sectors.
| Setting | 2020 U.S. measure | What the measure means |
|---|---|---|
| Adult day services | 237,400 daily participants | Enrollment or participation on a given day |
| Nursing homes | 1,294,800 daily residents | Point-in-time residence |
| Residential care communities | 818,800 daily residents | Point-in-time residence |
| Home health agencies | 2,977,900 annual patients | Patients cared for and discharged during 2020 |
| Hospices | 1,534,600 annual patients | Patients receiving hospice services during 2020 |
| Inpatient rehabilitation facilities | 345,200 annual patients | Facility patients during 2020 |
| Long-term care hospitals | 81,000 annual patients | Facility patients during 2020 |
Provider size also varied. In 2020, 52.1% of adult day services centers served 1–25 participants daily, while 66.5% of nursing homes served 26–100 residents daily; both are daily-count categories rather than annual reach measures.
Source: CDC, Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Providers and Services Users in the United States, 2020.
Long-Term Care Costs and Cost Trends
The 2024 Genworth and CareScout Cost of Care Survey reported national median provider rates. These are not realized household bills, public-payer reimbursement rates, or a full accounting of every long-term services and supports expense; schedules and added services can change the amount paid.
| Service or room type | 2024 national median annual cost | Measurement note |
|---|---|---|
| Adult day care | $26,000 | Provider-rate median; schedules vary |
| Assisted-living community | $70,800 | Median base/community cost; extra services may cost more |
| Homemaker services | $75,504 | Median rate for hands-off tasks |
| Home health aide | $77,792 | Median provider rate; not necessarily full-time annual spending |
| Semi-private nursing-home room | $111,325 | Median provider rate |
| Private nursing-home room | $127,750 | Median provider rate |
The survey also measured year-over-year movement in national median rates. From 2023 to 2024, home health aide costs rose 3%, adult day care rose 5%, and both homemaker services and assisted-living costs rose 10%.
Source: Genworth and CareScout, Release Cost of Care Survey Results for 2024.
Long-Term Care Disability Risk and Unpaid Caregiving
Long-term care need is not limited to people living in institutions or receiving paid services. The Administration for Community Living’s 2024 strategic-framework report describes both projected future need and the scale of unpaid support in homes and communities.
- An estimated 56% of Americans turning 65 in 2022 will develop a disability serious enough to require long-term services and supports.
- About 22% of all U.S. adults have a disability lasting more than five years; this broad estimate is not limited to older adults or paid-care users.
- More than 53 million unpaid family caregivers provide long-term services and supports in U.S. homes and communities in the 2024 report context.
The 56% figure is a projection or estimate of future need, and “long-term services and supports” includes more than institutional care. The caregiver count refers to unpaid family caregivers, not professional caregiver employment.
Residential Care Resident Needs and Chronic Conditions
CDC’s 2022 residential-care data describe a population with substantial assistance needs. About 1,016,400 residents lived in residential care communities on a given day, and 67% were female compared with 33% male; these are point-in-time survey estimates with confidence intervals and rounded percentages.
Age and coverage also shaped the resident profile. 53% were age 85 or older, and about 17% were Medicaid beneficiaries, defined here as having Medicaid pay some or all long-term services and supports in the 30 days before interview; the reported estimate was 16.9% with a wide confidence interval.
| Measure among U.S. residential care residents | 2022 share |
|---|---|
| Needed help with three or more ADLs | 62% |
| Needed help with one or two ADLs | 26% |
| Needed no help with ADLs | 12% |
| Needed bathing assistance | 75% |
| Needed walking assistance | 71% |
| Needed dressing assistance | 60% |
| Needed transferring assistance | 57% |
| Needed toileting assistance | 51% |
| Needed eating assistance | 28% |
ADL means activities of daily living, and assistance can include supervision, an assistive device, help from another person, or a combination. ADL measures are not mutually exclusive, so the individual assistance percentages should not be added.
Selected chronic-condition measures were also not mutually exclusive and referred to residents ever diagnosed. High blood pressure affected 58%, Alzheimer disease or other dementias 44%, heart disease 33%, depression 26%, and arthritis 18%.
Source: CDC, Residential Care Community Resident Characteristics: United States, 2022.
Long-Term Care Access, Capacity, and Regional Differences
National totals conceal regional differences in where formal services and beds are located. In the CDC’s 2020 regional distribution, the South contained 54.0% of long-term care hospitals, the Midwest contained 32.7% of nursing homes, the West contained 39.7% of residential care communities, and the Northeast contained 18.4% of adult day services centers.
Bed measures provide another view of potential capacity, but they are not occupancy rates. In 2020, the West had 27.5 licensed residential-care-community beds per 1,000 people age 65 and older and 18.7 certified nursing-home beds per 1,000 people age 65 and older.
Adult day services also differed by operating model in 2022. Nationally, 72.9% of centers operated onsite only, while 27.1% provided services onsite or offsite, or both; the estimate was based on 389 eligible centers weighted nationally.
Regional operating patterns were wider: onsite-only operation was 84.6% in the Northeast and 52.3% in the West. These are survey estimates of operating status, not measures of quality, utilization, staffing, or outcomes.
Source: CDC, Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Providers and Services Users in the United States, 2020.