How does your nursing home really rate?
Every Medicare- and Medicaid-certified nursing home, ranked on CMS Five-Star ratings, nurse-staffing hours, health-inspection findings, and three-year fine history — 14,703 U.S. facilities, in plain view.
- Nursing Homes
- 14,703
- Avg Overall Rating
- 3.0 / 5
- Total Beds
- 1,570,047
- Total Fines
- $480.1M
The national picture
The average U.S. nursing home earns 3.0 of 5 CMS stars — but quality is sharply uneven: about 20% reach the top mark and a near-equal 20% land at the bottom.
- 3.0 / 5
- Mean CMS overall rating, 14,572 rated homes
- 2,942
- Five-star facilities (20%)
- 2,938
- One-star facilities (20%)
- $480.1M
- Federal fines, 14,835 penalties
Ratings combine health inspections, nurse-staffing levels, and clinical quality measures. 528 facilities are flagged by CMS as Special Focus for persistent problems.
How U.S. nursing homes are rated
According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, every Medicare- and Medicaid-certified nursing home in the United States — 14,703 facilities as of March 2026 — is surveyed on a rolling basis and scored from one to five stars. The average home rates 3.0, yet more than 2,938 sit at each extreme: a spread that makes the three underlying components — health-inspection findings, nurse-staffing hours, and clinical quality measures — far more telling than the headline star alone. Every figure on this site is computed directly from the public CMS Nursing Home Compare dataset; see our methodology for how each number is derived and refreshed.
States
View all 53| State | Facilities | Avg Rating | 5-Star | 1-Star | Avg RN Hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama (AL) | 224 | 3.0 | 38 | 38 | 0.64 |
| Alaska (AK) | 20 | 3.5 | 6 | 3 | 2.15 |
| Arizona (AZ) | 140 | 3.4 | 43 | 10 | 0.71 |
| Arkansas (AR) | 221 | 3.4 | 62 | 27 | 0.40 |
| California (CA) | 1,162 | 3.1 | 280 | 188 | 0.65 |
| Colorado (CO) | 210 | 3.1 | 50 | 29 | 0.82 |
| Connecticut (CT) | 191 | 3.0 | 40 | 39 | 0.70 |
| Delaware (DE) | 44 | 3.3 | 11 | 4 | 1.03 |
| District of Columbia (DC) | 17 | 3.5 | 5 | 1 | 1.74 |
| Florida (FL) | 694 | 3.2 | 167 | 101 | 0.73 |
| Georgia (GA) | 356 | 2.6 | 50 | 102 | 0.49 |
| Guam (GU) | 1 | 1.0 | 0 | 1 | 2.55 |
| Hawaii (HI) | 42 | 3.6 | 15 | 2 | 1.63 |
| Idaho (ID) | 80 | 3.1 | 19 | 15 | 0.83 |
| Illinois (IL) | 668 | 2.5 | 91 | 240 | 0.73 |
Top-Rated Facilities
View allData source: CMS Nursing Home Compare (data.cms.gov). 14,703 facilities as of March 2026. For informational purposes only.
Frequently Asked Questions
What data does PlainNursing provide?
PlainNursing provides CMS Nursing Home Compare data for 14,700+ facilities including staffing levels, health inspection deficiencies, and penalty information.
What do nursing home star ratings mean?
CMS assigns 1-5 star overall ratings based on health inspections, staffing levels, and quality measures. A 5-star rating indicates much above average quality.
Where does the data come from?
All data comes from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Nursing Home Compare program, which surveys all Medicare and Medicaid certified nursing homes.
Nursing Home Guides
Learn how to interpret CMS data and make informed care decisions.
Understanding Star Ratings
How CMS calculates the 1–5 star system and what each component measures.
Staffing Levels Explained
Why RN and CNA ratios matter and how to read staffing data against national benchmarks.
Choosing a Nursing Home
A practical guide to evaluating facilities using deficiency reports, penalties, and in-person visits.
Warning Signs of Poor Care
Red flags in CMS data: IJ deficiencies, thin staffing, high antipsychotic use, and penalty history.
Evaluating Nursing Home Staffing
RN hours, CNA ratios, national benchmarks, and what turnover rates signal about care quality.
Research
State-level analysis built directly from the CMS dataset on this site. See all research →
States ranked by average rating
Which states' nursing homes score highest — and lowest — on CMS overall ratings.
States ranked by total fines
Aggregate federal penalty volume by state across all certified facilities.
Top states by facility count
Where the nation's skilled-nursing capacity is concentrated.
How to use this data
A star rating is a starting point, not a verdict — read the components that drive it.
- Check the staffing rating and RN hours, not just the overall stars — thin staffing is the clearest warning sign. Staffing guide
- Read the health-inspection deficiency history for serious (G-or-higher) and abuse findings before you decide. Deficiencies explained
- Compare several nearby facilities side by side rather than judging one in isolation. Browse by state
CMS Five-Star ratings measure relative performance bands, not absolute clinical safety, and are refreshed monthly. Always confirm current status with the facility and your state survey agency.