This page covers the US home care industry in numbers: what the country spends on home health care, how many agencies and patients there are, how Medicare pays, how large and how well paid the workforce is, what families pay for care, and how fast the population that needs care is growing. It includes both home health (skilled, often Medicare-covered care) and non-medical home care (help with bathing, meals and daily tasks), and labels which is which.
Every figure links to its source and shows the year of the data. We relied on federal data first (CMS, MedPAC, BLS, CDC, Census) and used industry and nonprofit research (CareScout, AARP, PHI, BrightLocal) where federal data does not exist. All figures were checked on 2026-10-08.
Home care spending and Medicare
Home health care is one of the fastest-growing parts of US health spending. These figures cover care billed by home health agencies.
| Statistic | Source | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Spending on freestanding home health care agencies rose 10.2% to $169.4 billion. | CMS, National Health Expenditures 2024 Highlights | 2024 |
| Home health care was 3% of total US health spending, which reached $5.3 trillion. | CMS, National Health Expenditures 2024 Highlights | 2024 |
| About 2.7 million fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries received home health care. | MedPAC, March 2026 Report, Chapter 8 | 2024 |
| Fee-for-service Medicare spent $16.0 billion on home health services. | MedPAC, March 2026 Report, Chapter 8 | 2024 |
| Freestanding home health agencies earned an average fee-for-service Medicare margin of 21.2%. | MedPAC, March 2026 Report, Chapter 8 | 2024 |
| 18.0% of general acute care hospital discharges were followed by a home health period, up from 15.8% in 2019. | MedPAC, March 2026 Report, Chapter 8 | 2024 |
| 63.8% ($145.9 billion) of Medicaid long-term services and supports spending went to home and community-based services. | AHCA/NCAL, citing CMS Medicaid reports | FY 2023 |
The hospital discharge figure covers the first 10 months of 2024. MedPAC recommended a 7% cut to the Medicare home health base payment rate for 2027, citing the high margin. One linking site quotes a "US home care market projected to reach $225 billion by 2025"; we found no published source for that projection. The CMS figure above is measured spending.
Agencies and patients
The supply of agencies is large and mostly for-profit. Most Medicare beneficiaries live near several agencies.
| Statistic | Source | Year |
|---|---|---|
| More than 12,000 home health agencies were certified to participate in Medicare. | MedPAC, March 2026 Report, Chapter 8 | 2024 |
| 86% of fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries lived in a ZIP code served by 5 or more home health agencies. | MedPAC, March 2026 Report, Chapter 8 | 2024 |
| About 11,500 home health agencies operated in the US, and 83.5% had for-profit ownership. | CDC National Center for Health Statistics, FastStats | 2022 |
| About 3.3 million patients received and ended home health care during the year. | CDC National Center for Health Statistics, FastStats | 2022 |
With 5 or more agencies serving most ZIP codes, a family choosing an agency usually has options to compare. That makes local search visibility and reviews a real factor in which agency gets the call; our local SEO statistics show how people pick local providers.
The home care workforce
Aides are among the fastest-growing jobs in the country, and among the lowest paid. Workforce supply limits how many clients an agency can take.
| Statistic | Source | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Home health and personal care aides held 4,677,100 jobs. | Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook | 2025 |
| Employment of home health and personal care aides is projected to grow 18% from 2025 to 2035, adding 847,300 jobs. | Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook | 2025 |
| About 760,500 openings for these aides are projected each year over the decade. | Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook | 2025 |
| The median annual pay for home health and personal care aides was $35,800 ($17.21 an hour). | Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook | 2025 |
| There are 5.8 million direct care workers in the US, including nearly 3.5 million home care workers. | PHI, Direct Care Workforce Key Facts | 2025 |
| 34% of direct care workers live in or near poverty, and 45% rely on some form of public assistance. | PHI, Direct Care Workforce Key Facts | 2025 |
Most openings come from workers leaving the occupation, which is why recruiting is a constant task for agencies. PHI's counts use a broader definition than BLS, including nursing assistants in other settings.
What families pay for home care
Most non-medical home care is paid out of pocket, so price shapes how many hours families buy.
| Statistic | Source | Year |
|---|---|---|
| The national median cost of a home health aide or homemaker was $35 an hour, up 3% from 2024. | CareScout, Cost of Care Survey | 2025 |
| At 44 hours a week, that is $80,080 a year. | CareScout, Cost of Care Survey | 2025 |
| Adult day health care cost a median $95 a day. | CareScout, Cost of Care Survey | 2025 |
| A private nursing home room cost a median $10,798 a month ($129,575 a year). | CareScout, Cost of Care Survey | 2025 |
CareScout surveyed providers from July to November 2025. It now reports homemaker and home health aide rates as one category because their prices have converged. See our assisted living statistics for residential care costs.
Demand: the aging population and family caregivers
The population most likely to need home care is growing faster than any other age group, and most older adults want to stay home.
| Statistic | Source | Year |
|---|---|---|
| The US population aged 65 and older reached about 61.2 million, up 3.1% in one year and 13.0% since 2020. | US Census Bureau | 2024 |
| Older adults outnumbered children in 11 states, up from 3 states in 2020. | US Census Bureau | 2024 |
| Census projects the share of people 65 and older will pass the share under 18 in 2029. | US Census Bureau, 2023 National Population Projections | 2023 |
| 75% of adults 50 and older want to remain in their current home as they age, and 73% want to stay in their community. | AARP, 2024 Home and Community Preferences Survey | 2024 |
| 63 million Americans, about 1 in 4 adults, are family caregivers, nearly 50% more than in 2015. | AARP and National Alliance for Caregiving, Caregiving in the US 2025 | 2025 |
AARP's preference survey reached 3,090 adults in summer 2024. Family caregivers are often the person who searches for, compares and calls home care agencies.
How families find home care
No federal survey measures how families search for home care specifically. The best current data covers how US consumers choose local services in general.
| Statistic | Source | Year |
|---|---|---|
| 97% of US consumers read online reviews for local businesses. | BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey 2026 | 2026 |
| 68% of consumers will only use businesses rated 4 stars or higher. | BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey 2026 | 2026 |
| 45% of consumers have used ChatGPT or another generative AI tool for local business recommendations. | BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey 2026 | 2026 |
| 34% of US adults have used an AI chatbot for at least one health-related purpose. | Pew Research Center | 2026 |
BrightLocal surveyed 1,002 US adults. Pew surveyed 3,488 US adults in June 2026. Both describe the general population, so a family caregiver searching for help for a parent may behave differently.
What these numbers mean for home care agencies
- Demand is growing faster than staff. With 61.2 million people aged 65 and older and 760,500 aide openings a year, many agencies are limited by hiring. Treat search visibility for caregiver jobs ("home health aide jobs near me") as seriously as visibility for clients.
- Win the local comparison. Most beneficiaries live near 5 or more agencies, and most consumers filter on star rating. A complete Google Business Profile and a steady flow of reviews decide who gets the first call. Our Google Maps guide for healthcare covers the setup.
- Publish your price range. Families pay a median $35 an hour, mostly from their own money. A page that explains rates, minimum hours and what Medicare, Medicaid and long-term care insurance cover answers the first question they ask.
- Write for the adult child. The person searching is often a working family caregiver. Pages for each service and town ("in-home dementia care in Plano") match the searches they run; our multi-location SEO guide covers agencies with several offices.
- Check how AI tools describe you. Nearly half of consumers have asked an AI tool for local recommendations. A free Rank.ai AI grade shows whether ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini name your agency for the questions families ask.
FAQ
How big is the home care industry in the US?
CMS reports that spending on freestanding home health care agencies reached $169.4 billion in 2024, up 10.2% from 2023. That figure covers home health agencies. Non-medical home care paid privately by families adds to it, and no federal source measures that segment as a single total.
How many home health agencies are there?
MedPAC counted more than 12,000 home health agencies certified to participate in Medicare in 2024. CDC's 2022 count was about 11,500 agencies, of which 83.5% were for-profit. The counts differ because they use different years and definitions.
How much do home health aides make?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a median annual wage of $35,800, or $17.21 an hour, for home health and personal care aides in 2025. PHI puts the median wage for direct care workers at $17.99 an hour in 2025.
How much does home care cost per hour?
CareScout's 2025 Cost of Care Survey found a national median of $35 an hour for a home health aide or homemaker, up 3% from 2024. Full-time care of 44 hours a week comes to about $80,080 a year.
Is the home care industry growing?
Yes. Home health spending grew 10.2% in 2024, BLS projects 18% job growth for aides from 2025 to 2035, and the 65 and older population grew 13.0% between 2020 and 2024.
Sources and method
We prioritized federal data: CMS National Health Expenditure Accounts, MedPAC's March 2026 report to Congress, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, and the Census Bureau. Industry and nonprofit sources (CareScout, AARP, PHI, BrightLocal, Pew Research Center) fill gaps on cost, workforce conditions and consumer behavior, with sample sizes noted. We left out figures we could not trace to a published source, including the "$225 billion by 2025" market projection. All figures and links were checked on 2026-10-08.
