Intelligence / Statistics
Home care franchise statistics, 2026
25 statistics about U.S. home care franchising, each read from a national system’s own 2026 franchise disclosure document and published only where at least 8 systems disclose the measure. Every figure carries its sample. Free to quote with attribution.
HomecareHQ analysis of 23 home care franchise systems’ 2026 filings · fiscal years 2024 and 2025 · next refresh after the 2027 filing season
The sector, in totals
- Franchised locations
- 6,002
- Reported at the end of the latest fiscal year by all 23 systems.
- Locations opened
- 787
- Across the 23 systems whose unit-flow tables reconcile.
- Locations exited
- 190
- Terminations, non-renewals, locations the franchisor bought back, and locations that ceased operating.
- Net change
- +597
- Openings minus exits, across the 23 systems that report both.
- Field-wide net growth
- +11.0%
- Net change over the 5,405 locations those systems started the year with. This is the field-wide figure, not the growth rate of a typical system.
- Systems that grew
- 21 of 23
- 2 ended the year with fewer franchised locations than they started with.
- Franchises sold, not yet open
- 433
- Across the 22 systems that disclose a pipeline. A signed agreement is not a guarantee that a location opens.
What a typical system reports
The middle system on each measure, with the full range and how many systems disclose it. Nothing here is a ranking, and most of these measures have no better direction.
Growth
| Measure | Typical | Lowest | Highest | Systems |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Net unit growthNet unit growth is how much a system's number of franchised locations rose or fell in its latest year, after subtracting the ones that left. | +12.6% | −41.7% | +276.2% | 23 of 23 |
| Three-year unit growthThree-year unit growth shows how much a system's total number of locations rose or fell over the past three years. | +33.3% | +1.7% | +338.9% | 20 of 23 |
| Exit rateThe exit rate is the share of a system's franchised locations that left during the year — closed, terminated, not renewed or bought back by the franchisor. | 3.5% | 0.0% | 50.0% | 23 of 23 |
| Signed, not yet openSigned but not yet open counts the franchises someone has bought and not yet opened for business. | 18 | 0 | 53 | 22 of 23 |
| Franchised locationsThe number of franchised locations the system reported at the end of its latest fiscal year. | 232 | 7 | 626 | 23 of 23 |
| Transfer rateThe share of locations that changed hands from one owner to another during the year. | 2.9% | 0.0% | 33.3% | 22 of 23 |
Economics
| Measure | Typical | Lowest | Highest | Systems |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Royalty share of revenueThe share of the franchisor's own revenue that comes from royalties its owners pay, rather than from selling new franchises or other income. | 62.5% | 18.3% | 75.2% | 12 of 23 |
| New-franchise fee shareThe share of the franchisor's revenue that comes from fees paid by people buying a new franchise. | 8.3% | 1.8% | 77.7% | 13 of 23 |
| Royalty income growthHow much the royalty income the franchisor collected changed from the prior year. | +17.6% | +2.2% | +33.9% | 8 of 23 |
| Operating marginWhat the franchisor keeps from its revenue after the costs of running the business, before interest and tax. | 5.9% | -103.9% | 64.2% | 10 of 23 |
Owner revenue
| Measure | Typical | Lowest | Highest | Systems |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Owner revenueWhat the filing says a franchised business took in over a year, for the group of businesses the filing chose to report on. | $1.19M | $609K | $2.35M | 16 of 23 |
| Revenue disclosure depthHow many of the basic facts about its revenue figures a filing spells out — who was counted, over what period, on what basis. | 9 | 0 | 12 | 23 of 23 |
Fees
| Measure | Typical | Lowest | Highest | Systems |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Royalty rateThe headline percentage an owner pays the franchisor on their sales, as printed in the filing. | 5.0% | 3.5% | 9.0% | 23 of 23 |
| Effective royalty at $1MThe royalty an owner actually pays on a million dollars of sales, once any tiers or step-downs in the schedule are applied. | 5.0% | 3.5% | 9.0% | 23 of 23 |
| All-in fee load at $1MEverything an owner pays the franchisor every year on a million dollars of sales — royalty, brand fund and technology fee together. | 7.3% | 6.0% | 10.0% | 20 of 23 |
| Initial franchise feeThe one-off fee paid to the franchisor to buy the franchise, before any of the other costs of opening. | $52K | $50K | $72K | 23 of 23 |
| Technology feeA fixed monthly charge for the software and systems the franchisor requires an owner to use. | $200/mo | $0/mo | $600/mo | 21 of 23 |
| Brand fundA percentage of sales owners pay into a shared marketing fund the franchisor spends on behalf of the system. | 1.5% | 1.0% | 5.0% | 22 of 23 |
| Startup investment, low endThe bottom of the range the filing gives for everything it takes to open, including the franchise fee. | $103K | $17K | $177K | 23 of 23 |
Support
| Measure | Typical | Lowest | Highest | Systems |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Classroom training hoursInstructor-led hours in the initial training programme for a new owner, as printed in the filing's training table. | 43 | 13 | 85 | 15 of 23 |
| On-the-job training hoursSupervised hours a new owner spends doing the work, rather than sitting in a classroom. | 5 | 0 | 82 | 10 of 23 |
Agreement
| Measure | Typical | Lowest | Highest | Systems |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Territory sizeHow many people the filing says a standard territory holds, on the basis that filing uses. | 25,000 | 9,000 | 50,000 | 17 of 23 |
| Agreement termHow many years the franchise agreement runs before it has to be renewed. | 10 | 5 | 10 | 22 of 23 |
What the filings do not support
Relationships people assume are in this data and are not. Each of these was tested the same way as the patterns above and came back empty.
Higher fees do not show up as more owners leaving.
How this was measured
Spearman ρ = −0.08 across 20 systems; two-sided permutation p = 0.737. A rank correlation over a field this small is pattern-finding, not proof, and says nothing about cause.
More classroom training does not track faster growth.
How this was measured
Spearman ρ = −0.28 across 13 systems; two-sided permutation p = 0.326. A rank correlation over a field this small is pattern-finding, not proof, and says nothing about cause.
How to cite this data
- Name the publisher and the year. "HomecareHQ analysis of 2026 franchise disclosure documents" is the attribution; every statistic on this site is derived from filings issued in that season.
- Carry the sample with the number. A figure drawn from part of the field means something different from one drawn from all of it, and the difference is usually the thing a reader will ask about first.
- Link to the page, not to the number. These pages are regenerated when filings are re-read and corrected, and the URL is the part that stays put.
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