Best Senior Living & Senior Care – Caring Stars

In determining its annual Caring Stars award winners list, Caring.com uses reviews attributes of greatest importance to care seekers and that are aligned with reviews best practices.

To be eligible for the Caring Stars 2025 award…

Senior care agencies and senior living communities with a resident capacity of 21 or higher had:

• At least 15 published reviews on their Caring.com listing by the October 15, 2024 deadline

• Across published reviews, an overall average rating of 4.5 stars or higher by 10/15/24

• A minimum of 5 reviews since October 15 of the previous year (5 published reviews between 10/15/23 – 10/15/24)

• One or more 5-star published reviews with dates in 2024 (at least one 5-star published review dated on or between 1/1/24 – 10/15/24)

• At least one published review response, and a response published on every 1-star and 2-star review across all time

For smaller senior living communities and residential care homes having 20 or fewer resident capacity: The qualification criteria are similar, with different thresholds for review volume and recent reviews. The care home still needed to have a 4.5 stars overall average rating or higher, with one or more 5-star reviews in 2024, by 10/15/24. They also needed to have at least 1 published review response and responses to every negative (1-star or 2-star) review on their Caring.com profile. But their total review volume requirement was at least 5 reviews, with 2 in the recent year qualification time frame (10/15/23 - 10/15/24). 

In finalizing the annual Caring Stars winner lists, Caring.com conducts an extensive audit of every published review on each finalist’s reviews page. For Caring Stars 2025: nearly 80,000 reviews were re-evaluated to uphold review publication validity and ensure award integrity.

For senior living, Caring also screened finalist communities using licensing and inspection report information on the state agency websites (where applicable and data publicly available). Communities with serious deficiencies in 2023 and/or 2024 were excluded from the 2025 winner list (Caring also excluded those with 4 or more less-serious deficiencies, as well as any with 2023 deficiencies repeated in 2024). 

Caring.com hosts the longest-running, highest-integrity senior living reviews program on the web — with nearly 400,000 consumer reviews currently published meeting stringent standards. The annual Caring Stars award helps seniors and their families rapidly find top-rated senior living communities, nursing homes, and senior care agencies in the United States. 

This award recognizes service excellence — helping the best senior living communities and senior care agencies stand out in search results, generate positive buzz, boost their sales and marketing, and attract talented professionals to their teams.

Originally launched in 2012 as the first of its kind in the senior living industry and expanded to include senior care in 2017, Caring Stars is now a leading go-to guide for seniors and their families nationwide. Caring Stars winner data was included in Fortune’s “Best Places to Live for Families” (2024, 2023 and 2022), and the program has been recognized in the National Mature Media Awards (2024, 2023 and 2013).

Any senior living community or senior care agency with an exceptional reviews profile on Caring.com is eligible for Caring Stars. Communities are selected based on merit, without needing to apply, partner, or advertise with Caring.com. Also, Caring doesn't charge fees for review surveys, promotional licensing of the Caring Stars badge, or other reviews services it offers (including an award-winning reviews-by-phone service manned by highly-trained, experienced review-collection agents). Families and seniors can trust that this award reflects a rigorous, transparent process rooted in genuine consumer feedback and well-established quality standards. 

Have questions? Please contact reviews@caring.com or (650) 762-8190.