What counts as a closure
When a pharmacy changes owner, the NHS often issues a brand-new contractor code for the same shop at the same address. Counted naively, that looks like one pharmacy closing and another opening on the same day. We checked every pharmacy whose 2023 contractor code had disappeared by 2026 against every newly-appearing code, matched by postcode. A disappeared code with a new code at the very same postcode is treated as a likely ownership or contractor-code change, not a closure.
On that basis, the underlying churn breaks down as 999 genuine closures (no replacement opened at that address) and 278 genuine new openings (a brand-new location, not a renumbered existing one) — a real net change of −721, close to the headline net figure above.
The areas hit hardest
Among counties with at least 20 pharmacies in 2023, these had the steepest percentage decline:
By county
Ceremonial counties, sorted by percentage change. "Per 100,000 people" uses ONS mid-2021 population estimates, the most recent official figures by local authority.
| County | Jan 2023 | Jun 2026 | Net change | % change | Per 100k (2023) | Per 100k (2026) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| West Sussex | 186 | 145 | -41 | -22.0% | 21.0 | 16.4 |
| Isle of Wight | 32 | 26 | -6 | -18.8% | 22.7 | 18.5 |
| Rutland | 6 | 5 | -1 | -16.7% | 14.5 | 12.1 |
| Lincolnshire | 209 | 177 | -32 | -15.3% | 19.1 | 16.1 |
| Northumberland | 77 | 67 | -10 | -13.0% | 23.9 | 20.8 |
| Cumbria | 108 | 94 | -14 | -13.0% | 21.6 | 18.8 |
| Worcestershire | 100 | 87 | -13 | -13.0% | 16.5 | 14.4 |
| Staffordshire | 256 | 225 | -31 | -12.1% | 22.5 | 19.8 |
| Merseyside | 363 | 323 | -40 | -11.0% | 25.5 | 22.7 |
| Devon | 223 | 199 | -24 | -10.8% | 18.3 | 16.3 |
| Suffolk | 139 | 126 | -13 | -9.4% | 18.2 | 16.5 |
| Cornwall | 99 | 90 | -9 | -9.1% | 17.2 | 15.7 |
| Wiltshire | 117 | 107 | -10 | -8.5% | 15.7 | 14.3 |
| Berkshire | 154 | 142 | -12 | -7.8% | 16.2 | 14.9 |
| Somerset | 180 | 166 | -14 | -7.8% | 18.3 | 16.9 |
| Derbyshire | 211 | 195 | -16 | -7.6% | 19.9 | 18.4 |
| Surrey | 197 | 182 | -15 | -7.6% | 16.3 | 15.1 |
| North Yorkshire | 211 | 195 | -16 | -7.6% | 19.2 | 17.7 |
| Warwickshire | 107 | 99 | -8 | -7.5% | 17.9 | 16.5 |
| Oxfordshire | 108 | 100 | -8 | -7.4% | 14.9 | 13.8 |
| Herefordshire | 28 | 26 | -2 | -7.1% | 14.9 | 13.9 |
| West Yorkshire | 527 | 492 | -35 | -6.6% | 22.4 | 20.9 |
| Norfolk | 156 | 146 | -10 | -6.4% | 17.0 | 15.9 |
| Essex | 320 | 300 | -20 | -6.2% | 17.2 | 16.1 |
| Lancashire | 343 | 322 | -21 | -6.1% | 22.4 | 21.0 |
| Buckinghamshire | 134 | 126 | -8 | -6.0% | 15.9 | 14.9 |
| Shropshire | 84 | 79 | -5 | -6.0% | 16.5 | 15.5 |
| Cheshire | 220 | 207 | -13 | -5.9% | 20.0 | 18.9 |
| Nottinghamshire | 227 | 214 | -13 | -5.7% | 19.8 | 18.7 |
| Kent | 321 | 303 | -18 | -5.6% | 17.3 | 16.3 |
| Hertfordshire | 233 | 220 | -13 | -5.6% | 19.4 | 18.3 |
| County Durham | 194 | 184 | -10 | -5.2% | 21.1 | 20.0 |
| Bedfordshire | 117 | 111 | -6 | -5.1% | 16.6 | 15.7 |
| Hampshire | 303 | 288 | -15 | -5.0% | 16.3 | 15.5 |
| Greater London | 1,796 | 1,708 | -88 | -4.9% | 20.4 | 19.4 |
| East Riding of Yorkshire | 131 | 125 | -6 | -4.6% | 21.5 | 20.5 |
| Dorset | 140 | 134 | -6 | -4.3% | 17.9 | 17.1 |
| Greater Manchester | 646 | 620 | -26 | -4.0% | 22.5 | 21.6 |
| Bristol | 79 | 76 | -3 | -3.8% | 16.8 | 16.1 |
| Tyne and Wear | 246 | 237 | -9 | -3.7% | 21.9 | 21.1 |
| West Midlands | 663 | 641 | -22 | -3.3% | 22.7 | 22.0 |
| Leicestershire | 221 | 214 | -7 | -3.2% | 20.5 | 19.8 |
| Northamptonshire | 126 | 123 | -3 | -2.4% | 16.0 | 15.6 |
| Gloucestershire | 154 | 152 | -2 | -1.3% | 16.4 | 16.2 |
| South Yorkshire | 305 | 305 | 0 | +0.0% | 22.2 | 22.2 |
| Cambridgeshire | 131 | 135 | +4 | +3.1% | 14.6 | 15.1 |
| East Sussex | 139 | 146 | +7 | +5.0% | 16.9 | 17.7 |
Method and sources
- NHS Business Services Authority, Pharmacy and appliance contractor dispensing data, January 2023 and June 2026 editions. Pharmacy-type contractors only; appliance contractors excluded.
- Office for National Statistics, mid-2021 population estimates by local authority, used for the per-100,000-people figures.
- Figures are grouped by ceremonial county, matching the counties used across this site. The January 2023 NHSBSA file does not record local-authority detail finely enough to compare reliably at that level against the 2026 file, so we have not published a local-authority breakdown for this period.
- A small number of pharmacies (54 in the 2023 file, 1 in the 2026 file) could not be matched to a county from their postcode and are excluded from the county table, though they are included in the national totals above.
- Published 16 October 2026. Every figure in the table and CSV can be reproduced from the two source files and the method above.