California has 8,566 licensed assisted living facilities with 212,191 licensed places as of October 2, 2026. California has 70.0 licensed assisted living places for every 1,000 residents aged 75 or older, as of October 2, 2026.
Most licensed places, though, are in large communities. Small homes hold 19.1% of all licensed places, and the 702 communities with 100 places or more hold 61.4%.
| Home size (licensed places) | Facilities | Places | Share of facilities | Share of places |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 or fewer | 6,878 | 40,429 | 80.3% | 19.1% |
| 7–10 | 114 | 995 | 1.3% | 0.5% |
| 11–49 | 509 | 12,745 | 5.9% | 6.0% |
| 50–99 | 363 | 27,680 | 4.2% | 13.0% |
| 100+ | 702 | 130,342 | 8.2% | 61.4% |
The county your parent lives in makes a tenfold difference in how much assisted living there is. Orange County has 95.3 licensed places per 1,000 residents aged 75 or older and Lake County has 9.3. Nine counties with small older populations have no licensed facility.
The county rate measures supply, not the quality of care in an individual home.
Los Angeles County has the most licensed places of any county, 45,236, yet its 63.1 places per 1,000 residents aged 75 or older is below the statewide 70.0.
San Francisco has the lowest rate of the ten counties with the most residents aged 75 or older: 43.2 places per 1,000.
Find your parent’s county and compare its rate with the statewide 70.0 places per 1,000 residents aged 75 or older.
Download the full county data (CSV)
| County | Residents 75+ | Licensed facilities | Licensed places | Places per 1,000 residents 75+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alameda | 124,694 | 244 | 9,192 | 73.7 |
| Alpine | 128 | 0 | 0 | No facility |
| Amador | 5,699 | 5 | 178 | 31.2 |
| Butte | 19,505 | 28 | 981 | 50.3 |
| Calaveras | 6,248 | 2 | 82 | 13.1 |
| Colusa | 1,529 | 0 | 0 | No facility |
| Contra Costa | 101,669 | 458 | 7,776 | 76.5 |
| Del Norte | 2,299 | 1 | 63 | 27.4 |
| El Dorado | 21,270 | 35 | 870 | 40.9 |
| Fresno | 64,547 | 301 | 5,720 | 88.6 |
| Glenn | 2,379 | 3 | 84 | 35.3 |
| Humboldt | 12,733 | 15 | 523 | 41.1 |
| Imperial | 10,884 | 7 | 404 | 37.1 |
| Inyo | 2,086 | 0 | 0 | No facility |
| Kern | 48,617 | 148 | 2,936 | 60.4 |
| Kings | 7,654 | 6 | 201 | 26.3 |
| Lake | 7,087 | 2 | 66 | 9.3 |
| Lassen | 2,213 | 1 | 76 | 34.3 |
| Los Angeles | 716,759 | 1,880 | 45,236 | 63.1 |
| Madera | 10,964 | 5 | 221 | 20.2 |
| Marin | 32,642 | 48 | 2,260 | 69.2 |
| Mariposa | 2,292 | 0 | 0 | No facility |
| Mendocino | 10,819 | 17 | 164 | 15.2 |
| Merced | 15,913 | 24 | 468 | 29.4 |
| Modoc | 1,115 | 0 | 0 | No facility |
| Mono | 913 | 0 | 0 | No facility |
| Monterey | 31,367 | 39 | 1,823 | 58.1 |
| Napa | 15,580 | 37 | 1,261 | 80.9 |
| Nevada | 14,131 | 8 | 516 | 36.5 |
| Orange | 262,572 | 1,122 | 25,015 | 95.3 |
| Placer | 47,233 | 243 | 4,312 | 91.3 |
| Plumas | 2,628 | 0 | 0 | No facility |
| Riverside | 188,613 | 591 | 11,057 | 58.6 |
| Sacramento | 118,707 | 678 | 10,395 | 87.6 |
| San Benito | 4,477 | 3 | 48 | 10.7 |
| San Bernardino | 127,364 | 301 | 6,956 | 54.6 |
| San Diego | 253,796 | 615 | 22,188 | 87.4 |
| San Francisco | 74,430 | 47 | 3,213 | 43.2 |
| San Joaquin | 52,534 | 136 | 3,657 | 69.6 |
| San Luis Obispo | 31,527 | 95 | 1,506 | 47.8 |
| San Mateo | 67,392 | 208 | 5,194 | 77.1 |
| Santa Barbara | 39,570 | 95 | 3,728 | 94.2 |
| Santa Clara | 142,198 | 261 | 11,012 | 77.4 |
| Santa Cruz | 24,944 | 28 | 1,198 | 48.0 |
| Shasta | 20,013 | 43 | 1,185 | 59.2 |
| Sierra | 474 | 0 | 0 | No facility |
| Siskiyou | 5,620 | 2 | 111 | 19.8 |
| Solano | 37,064 | 166 | 3,274 | 88.3 |
| Sonoma | 54,098 | 157 | 4,442 | 82.1 |
| Stanislaus | 36,947 | 104 | 2,843 | 76.9 |
| Sutter | 7,936 | 7 | 426 | 53.7 |
| Tehama | 6,373 | 10 | 164 | 25.7 |
| Trinity | 1,979 | 0 | 0 | No facility |
| Tulare | 27,262 | 47 | 1,025 | 37.6 |
| Tuolumne | 7,180 | 2 | 155 | 21.6 |
| Ventura | 74,047 | 264 | 6,566 | 88.7 |
| Yolo | 15,606 | 22 | 1,256 | 80.5 |
| Yuba | 5,065 | 5 | 164 | 32.4 |
California’s licensed assisted living places grew over the period, with one dip in 2025. The total rose from 183,867 in June 2017 to 212,609 in June 2026, an increase of 15.6%.
An RCFE is a residential care facility for the elderly, which is how California licenses assisted living and board-and-care homes. RCFEs give people aged 60 or older a place to live with care, supervision and help with personal care, matched to each resident’s needs. The California Department of Social Services licenses and regulates them.
California’s 8,566 licensed assisted living facilities have 212,191 licensed places as of October 2, 2026, or 70.0 places for every 1,000 Californians aged 75 or older.
California has 6,878 assisted living homes licensed for six residents or fewer, 80.3% of its 8,566 licensed facilities as of October 2, 2026. Together they hold 40,429 places, 19.1% of the state’s licensed places.
Los Angeles County has the most licensed assisted living facilities of any California county: 1,880 of the state’s 8,566 as of October 2, 2026.
Los Angeles County has 1,880 licensed assisted living facilities with 45,236 places as of October 2, 2026. That is 63.1 places per 1,000 residents aged 75 or older, below the statewide 70.0.
Orange County has the most licensed places per older resident of any California county: 95.3 per 1,000 residents aged 75 or older as of October 2, 2026, against a statewide 70.0.
Lake County has the least assisted living per older resident of any California county with a licensed facility: 9.3 licensed places per 1,000 residents aged 75 or older as of October 2, 2026. Among the ten counties with the most older residents, San Francisco has the least, 43.2 per 1,000.
Nine of California’s 58 counties have no licensed assisted living facility as of October 2, 2026: Alpine, Colusa, Inyo, Mariposa, Modoc, Mono, Plumas, Sierra and Trinity. Each has fewer than 3,000 residents aged 75 or older.
California’s licensed assisted living places grew 6.8% between June 2021 and June 2026. The number of licensed facilities grew 11.2% over the same five years.
California licenses memory care as assisted living, under the same state license as other assisted living facilities, and a facility that advertises dementia care must meet added requirements.
A board-and-care home is another name for an assisted living facility in California. The state licenses both as residential care facilities for the elderly, in small homes and larger facilities alike.
Check a California assisted living facility’s license by searching its name in the California Department of Social Services’ Care Facility Search. Its record shows the license status, licensed capacity and five years of inspection and complaint history.
Sources. Facility counts come from the California Department of Social Services and population figures from the Census Bureau. The full methodology has every source, selection rule and calculation.
