This page explains the Caring Stars award, providing relevant information for seniors and their families, senior living communities, senior care agencies, news media, and the public.

The deadline to qualify for Caring Stars 2025 is October 15, 2024!

The nationally-recognized Caring Stars program — originally launched in 2012 as the first of its kind in the senior living industry and expanded to include senior care in 2017 — uses real reviews from seniors and their families to spotlight senior living communities and senior care agencies with consistently exceptional ratings and recent praise, while also meeting other strict quality criteria for this service excellence award.

Any senior living community or senior care agency in the country is eligible for the Caring Stars service excellence award if they have the stellar reviews profile required to qualify. There is no application process, and no fees involved, and this high-integrity award program doesn’t consider advertising or partnership status in determining winners.

Have questions about Caring Stars or Caring’s reviews program?

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

Caring Stars 2024 Qualification Criteria

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 2024 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 15th deadline
  • Across all of those published reviews, an overall average rating of 4.5 stars or higher
  • A minimum of 4 reviews since October 15 of the previous year (4 published reviews between 10/15/22 – 10/15/23)
  • One or more 5-star published reviews with dates in 2023 (at least one 5-star published review dated on or between 1/1/23 – 10/15/23)
  • A published response 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 and reviews recommendations are different. In this case, the care home still needed to have a 4.5 stars overall average rating or higher, with one or more 5-star reviews in 2023. They also needed to have a response to every negative review on their Caring.com listing. But their total reviews volume requirement was at least 5 reviews, with 2 in the recent year qualification time frame. 

In determining the annual Caring Stars list, Caring.com conducts an extensive audit of every consumer review on each finalist’s reviews page. For the Caring Stars 2024 winner list, tens of thousands of reviews were re-evaluated to uphold publication validity and avoid giving the award based on any reviews with conflicts of interest or other guidelines concerns. Caring also screened finalist communities using licensing information on the state agency websites (where applicable and data publicly available). 

More Info About Caring Stars

Caring.com hosts the longest-running, highest-integrity senior living reviews program on the web — with over 375,000 consumer reviews currently published that conform to Caring’s strict review guidelines. 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. Any senior living or senior care service provider with a stellar consumer reviews profile on Caring.com may qualify provided they meet the criteria for each year’s award.  

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.

Started in 2012 as the original “best senior living” award in our industry, 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” (2022, 2023 and 2024), and the program has been recognized in the National Mature Media Awards (2013, 2023 and 2024).

For senior living communities to be honored as Caring Stars, there are no partnership or advertising requirements, no application process, and no fees for review surveys or promotional licensing of the award badge. Seniors and their families can rely on the integrity of this “best senior living” award based on well-vetted consumer reviews and the well-established high standards of the Caring Stars program. 

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

Caring Stars Winners Over the Years

Multi-Year Winners or “Caring Super Stars”

Caring Super Stars are senior living communities and senior care agencies who have earned the Caring Stars award in three (3) or more years. They get a special badge and promo kit that is unique from standard winners.

Caring.com Reviews Program Info for Seniors and Families:

For Senior Living Communities & Senior Care Agencies: