NHS acute (hospital) trust catchment populations: April 2026
Modelled populations (including demographic breakdown) for hospital trusts in England, April 2021 to March 2025.
Applies to England
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The NHS acute (hospital) trust catchment populations analytical resource is classified as official statistics.
Understanding the population that a hospital supports is an important part of service planning and healthcare provision. Hospital provider trusts do not have geographically defined boundaries for the populations they support. They also do not have comprehensive lists of registered patients.
The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) has published modelled estimates of the catchment populations for hospital provider trusts in England. These catchment populations give estimates for the number of people who are using each hospital trust or have the potential to do so. They can be used to generate hospital catchment areas, which are estimated geographical areas from which the clients of a particular health facility or service within it are drawn.
Catchment populations are useful for service planning and show the potential population who may access the services. They give providers a useful indication of, for example, how many staff are required and other capacities that may be needed to meet the demand for a service (for example, operating theatres and providing consultants for particular specialties).
The NHS acute catchment populations analytical resource will be updated annually.
If you have any comments, questions or feedback, contact us at lkis@dhsc.gov.uk. Use ‘Acute catchment populations’ as the email subject.