Surge in sunbed shops across UK with 'poorest' areas seeing most being opened

The number of sunbed shops in the UK is soaring and the more 'deprived' the region the more there are, a new study has found. A nalysis by companydata.com shows the number of tanning shops has risen by 47 per cent since 2016, from 2,103 to 3,095.

The figure passed the 3,000 mark for the first time this year, with the North East of England having 233 salons. Newcastle, Sunderland, Durham, Darlington and Teesside postcodes, have about 8.5 shops per 100,000 people, which is almost twice the national average of 4.5.

The study found that an average of 70 salons have opened per year since the pandemic but 126 have already opened since the start of January 2026. Northern Ireland has 102 salons, or 5.3 per 100,000 but at the other end of the scale is the South West (2.7 per 100,000), the South East (3.0) and London (3.2), which has the fewest.

Companydata.com says the four regions with the highest disposable income per head are the four with the fewest salons per person. The North East has the lowest income per head in Britain and the most salons, while London has the highest income and, with the South East and South West, among the fewest salons.

Elsewhere in Europe the number of salons is flat or falling, with shops in the second largest market, Germany, decreasing from 2,286 salons in 2016 to 1,929 now (16%). Excluding the UK, Europe counted 5,167 salons in 2016 and 4,650 today, a fall of 10 per cent, meaning Britain is the only major European market where the number is still growing.

The UK is now said to account for 40% of European salons found in the study . The sharpest fall in sunbed shops across Europe is in the Netherlands, which declined from having 535 salons in 2016 to 420 on 1 January 2026, down 21 per cent.

Cancer Research UK says sunbeds can cause cancer by the UV rays damaging DNA in your skin cells. Uttam Ramdaras, data analyst at companydata.com, said: "Across Europe tanning salons have been quietly coming off the registers for years. Britain is the exception, and the growth is not in London or the Home Counties but in the North East and the North West.

"Line the regions up by income and the pattern is hard to miss. The less people earn, the more sunbed shops there are. The data does not tell you why, but it tells you where."