People sleeping rough in London (2008/09 - 2025/26)
Last updated: September 2026
Next estimated update: July 2027
What does this indicator show?
This indicator shows the total number of people seen sleeping rough in London, by year. This information comes from CHAIN, a database about people sleeping rough in London maintained by charity outreach workers. It contains a record for everyone known to staff and volunteers throughout the specified year.
Further down the page you’ll find the number of people sleeping rough in London by ethnicity and gender.
What does it tell us?
Nearly 13,000 people were seen sleeping rough in London in 2025/26. This is more than 3x higher than 15 years ago, in 2010/11, and the second highest number of rough sleepers seen in London out of the years shown here.
It also shows, though, that rough sleeping has gone down very slightly in the last year, by about 2%. This is a modest decrease, but comes after several years of skyrocketing levels of homelessness. It’s the first time since 2021/21 that the number of rough sleepers in London has decreased.
People sleeping rough by ethnicity
White people are the largest single ethnic group of rough sleepers (5,308). However, the proportion of rough sleepers who are white has declined significantly from 71% in 2011/12 to 41% in 2025/26.
There has been a corresponding increase in the number of rough sleepers from minority ethnic backgrounds who form the majority (59%) of rough sleepers in London.
Black people make up 25% of rough sleepers in the capital - up from 13% a decade ago and 23% 5 years ago.
People sleeping rough in London by ethnicity (2011/12 - 2025/26)
People sleeping rough by gender
A large majority (80%) of people sleeping rough in London are men. But over the last few years, the number of women seen sleeping rough has increased significantly.
In 2025/26, 2251 women were seen sleeping rough in London - the highest number in the timeframe shown here, and more than three times higher than in 2011/12.
People sleeping rough in London by gender (2011/12 - 2025/26)
Want to know more?
If you want to explore this data in more depth, check the 'data source and notes' button on the above charts. This will tell you where the data comes from, where you may be able to dig deeper.