Herefordshire Council: local authority assessment

Published: 29 May 2026 Page last updated: 29 May 2026

Assessment published: 29 May 2026

About Herefordshire Council

Demographics

Herefordshire is a unitary authority in the West Midlands, bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east and the Welsh counties of Monmouthshire and Powys to the west. The city of Hereford is the county town, surrounded by the five market towns of Leominster, Ross-on-Wye, Ledbury, Bromyard and Kington.

Herefordshire is home to approximately 191,000 people across 840 square miles. Rurality poses a challenge for providing services, with 43% of the local population living in the more rural villages and dispersed areas. Herefordshire is the fourth most sparsely populated local authority in England.

The majority of the population of Herefordshire are White British (96.91%), with 1.2% Asian or Asian British, 1.1% from a Mixed or Multiple background, 0.3% Black, Black British, Caribbean or African, and 0.5% from Other ethnic groups. There is a higher proportion of the population in the county who are aged 65 or older (26.97%) than the England average (18.73%).

Herefordshire has an Index of Multiple Deprivation score of 5 (with 10 being the highest and most deprived) and is rated 88 out of 153 (1 being most deprived). There are 12 neighbourhoods in the 25% most deprived areas in the country, with approximately 6,100 older people living in income deprivation, which represents 11% of all people aged 60 or over.

Life expectancy for men and women was better than England average, but the gap was narrowing (83.6 years for women and 79.8 for men, compared with 83.1 and 79.1 nationally). Men in Herefordshire spent 83% of their lives in good health compared to 80% across England; for women the local figure was 81% compared to 77% nationally. People born in the most deprived areas in Herefordshire had a shorter life expectancy by an average of 5.2 years for men and 3.2 years for women.

Herefordshire is located in the Herefordshire and Worcestershire Integrated Care System (ICS). Hereford County Hospital is the only hospital in the county delivering acute and community services.

Herefordshire Council is comprised of 53 councillors representing the 53 wards in the area. Herefordshire is a Conservative run council with a minority administration.

Financial facts

The Financial facts for Herefordshire are:

The local authority estimated that in 2024/25, its total budget would be £343,697,000.00. Its actual spend for that year was £363,335,000.00, which was £19,638,000.00 more than estimated.
The local authority estimated that it would spend £85,923,000.00 of its total budget on adult social care in 2024/25 Its actual spend was £94,342,000.00, which is £8,419,000.00 more than estimated.
In 2024/25, 25.97% of the budget was spent on adult social care.
The local authority has raised the full adult social care precept for 2024/25, with a value of 2%. Please note that the amount raised through ASC precept varies from local authority to local authority.
Approximately 3005 people were accessing long-term adult social care support, and approximately 515 people were accessing short-term adult social care support in 2023/24. Local authorities spend money on a range of adult social care services, including supporting individuals. No two care packages are the same and vary significantly in their intensity, duration, and cost.

This data is reproduced at the request of the Department of Health and Social Care. It has not been factored into our assessment and is presented for information purposes only.