Cornwall Council: local authority assessment

How we assess local authorities

Assessment published: 29 May 2026

About Cornwall Council

Demographics

Cornwall Council is a unitary local authority in the south west of England, covering the county of Cornwall. Cornwall county is made up of both coastal and inland regions, including rural and urban areas. Truro is the only city within the county but there were also towns with higher population density such as Redruth, Falmouth, and St Austall.

The total population of Cornwall is 578,324. 55.96% of adults were working age and 25.77% were aged 65 or over. There is an aging population in Cornwall, and the number of people aged 65 and over rose by 25.9% between the 2011 and 2021 census. People in Cornwall were living longer in poor health, one in five people aged between 75-79 have at least five long-term conditions.  

In Cornwall 96.81% of people identify as white British, 1.2% identify as mixed ethnicity, 1.1% identify as ‘other’ ethnic group, 0.7% identify as Asian and 0.2% identify as black. In the 2021 census 103,230 people in Cornwall identified as Cornish, which was 18.1% of Cornwall’s population. Cornwall had an Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) score of 7 and is the 60th most deprived local authority in England, with 1 being the most deprived and 153 being the least deprived. Across the population, there is a mix of affluence and deprivation between towns and within communities.

Cornwall is part of the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Integrated Care System (ICS) and is one of two local authorities within the ICS, the other local authority being the Isles of Scilly.

No political party held an overall majority in Cornwall.  The three parties with the most seats were Reform UK (23), Liberal Democrat (26) and Independents (16) with the remaining 22 seats spread amongst four different parties.  The leader for the council is from the Liberal Democrat party.

Financial facts

• The local authority estimated that in 2023/24, its total budget would be £906,455,000.00. Its actual spend for that year was £935,901,000.00, which was £29,446,000.00 more than estimated.
• The local authority estimated that it would spend £296,017,000.00 of its total budget on adult social care in 2023/24. Its actual spend for that year was £293,103,000.00 which was £2,914,000.00 less than estimated.
• The local authority had raised the full adult social care precept for 2023/24, with a value of 2%.
• Approximately 8975 people were accessing long-term adult social care support, and approximately 2960 people were accessing short term adult social care support in 2023/24.