Photo: Colin Vosper · CC BY-SA 2.010 years separate the longest- and shortest-lived parts of Bournemouth
Inside the city, men’s life expectancy runs from 73.0 in Boscombe West to 83.4 in Littledown, 1.2 miles apart. Life expectancy is 78.5 for men and 83.1 for women. England as a whole stood at 79.1 and 83.0 over 2019 to 2023. Bournemouth grades C− for health: life expectancy, healthy life expectancy, early deaths, hospital admissions, child obesity and Census health, each adjusted for age.
What stands out about health in Bournemouth
A 10-year gap from one part of Bournemouth to another
Men in Littledown can expect to live to 83.4, longer than the English average of 79.1. In Boscombe West, 1.2 miles away, the figure is 73.0, and Boscombe West records 193 deaths under 75 for every 100 expected for its ages. For women the range is 78.1 in Boscombe West to 87.2 in Moordown. Neighbourhoods ↓
NHS dentists are harder to get than in most of England
Of adults in the Dorset area who tried to get an NHS dental appointment in the last two years, 75% succeeded, 5th lowest of England’s 36 health areas; across England it was 82%. Dentists ↓
Written from the OHID, NHS England and GP Patient Survey figures on this page. Life expectancy covers 2019 to 2023; neighbourhoods are ONS middle-layer areas of about 8,000 people.
Bournemouth grades C− for health
Healthier than 24% of UK towns, on age-adjusted measures.
Behind the typical UK town on every measure. Even its strongest, women’s life expectancy and disability, are in the bottom 40% of UK towns; emergency admissions and preventable deaths are furthest behind. Among the 45 UK towns of 138,000 to 265,000 people, Bournemouth’s Health Grade is the 24th highest.
Each measure is ranked against every UK town of 1,000 or more, the ranks are averaged, and the average is ranked again. Every measure allows for the town’s ages: life expectancy is worked out from the death rate at each age, so it doesn’t depend on how old the town’s residents are; deaths and admissions are counted against what England’s rates would give a town with these ages, and the Census answers against England and Wales’s rates by single year of age, so a seaside town of retired people isn’t marked down for being old.
Men’s life expectancy across Bournemouth runs from 73.0 to 83.4
Life expectancy at birth, 2019–23, in Bournemouth’s 23 middle-layer neighbourhoods (about 8,000 people each). Circles are sized by residents and show men’s life expectancy.
The gap follows deprivation closely: West Howe, where 44% of residents are income-deprived, has men’s life expectancy of 74.6. Boscombe West has the most deaths under 75 for its ages (193 per 100 expected), against 60 in Littledown.
Show every measure as a table
| Neighbourhood | Men | Women | Deaths under 75 | Emergency admissions | Year 6 obese | Income-deprived |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Littledown | 83.4 | 85.5 | 60 | 102 | 15% | 9.6% |
| Moordown | 82.2 | 87.2 | 67 | 101 | 20% | 13% |
| Northbourne | 81.9 | 87.0 | 79 | 114 | 20% | 16% |
| Iford | 81.6 | 85.8 | 79 | 116 | 17% | 18% |
| Talbot & Branksome Woods | 81.3 | 84.4 | 78 | 107 | 13% | 11% |
| East Southbourne & Hengistbury Head | 80.9 | 84.5 | 84 | 96 | 12% | 10% |
| Throop & Muscliffe | 80.9 | 83.1 | 83 | 118 | 16% | 20% |
| Queens Park | 80.1 | 85.1 | 85 | 101 | 15% | 15% |
| Southbourne West | 80.0 | 83.5 | 85 | 110 | 16% | 16% |
| Boscombe East | 79.8 | 85.7 | 89 | 117 | 21% | 23% |
| Kinson West | 78.9 | 82.8 | 107 | 133 | 30% | 25% |
| Winton | 78.8 | 81.7 | 112 | 119 | 22% | 22% |
| East Howe & Ensbury Park | 78.2 | 81.2 | 120 | 131 | 26% | 25% |
| Kinson East | 78.0 | 84.3 | 101 | 128 | 26% | 28% |
| Springbourne & Queen's Park | 77.9 | 82.6 | 108 | 135 | 24% | 30% |
| Townsend & Strouden | 77.6 | 83.4 | 111 | 137 | 28% | 35% |
| Charminster | 77.0 | 81.1 | 113 | 112 | 24% | 21% |
| West Cliff | 76.7 | 83.7 | 112 | 104 | 20% | 19% |
| Central Bournemouth | 76.6 | 81.7 | 122 | 116 | 26% | 18% |
| Westbourne | 75.7 | 80.5 | 140 | 118 | 28% | 22% |
| East Cliff | 74.8 | 81.3 | 170 | 141 | 20% | 23% |
| West Howe | 74.6 | 81.4 | 148 | 164 | 26% | 44% |
| Boscombe West | 73.0 | 78.1 | 193 | 154 | 31% | 38% |
Deaths and admissions per 100 expected for each area’s ages (England = 100). Each figure has a range: Boscombe West’s men’s life expectancy is 73.0 with a 95% range of 71.3 to 74.7. Neighbourhoods are ONS middle-layer areas at least 30% inside Bournemouth; names are the House of Commons Library’s.
75% of adults in the Dorset area who tried got an NHS dental appointment
Adults who tried to get an NHS dental appointment for themselves in the last two years, and got one. GP Patient Survey 2026, by integrated care system (the NHS area that plans dentistry for Bournemouth).
Dorset has the 5th lowest of England’s 36 health areas; across England 82% of those who tried got an appointment. Of Dorset patients who did, 66% rated the experience good (England 74%). NHS practices taking new patients are listed on the NHS website’s Find a dentist; for urgent dental pain, call NHS 111.
The survey asks GP patients about dentistry, so results are published for health areas, not towns or practices.
Men’s life expectancy in Bournemouth is 0.7 years below what its level of deprivation predicts
Across 1,996 English towns of 2,500 or more, men’s life expectancy tracks income deprivation closely (correlation −0.81). Each dot is a town.
22% of Bournemouth’s residents are income-deprived, more than in most English towns. For that level, the line predicts 79.2 years for men; Bournemouth’s is 78.5. For women it predicts 83.0, and Bournemouth’s 83.1 is close to it.
Income deprivation: share of residents in low-income households, English Indices of Deprivation 2025, averaged over each town’s neighbourhoods. A town above or below the line isn’t necessarily doing better or worse on care: students, prisons and hostels inside a boundary all shift the figures.
Care in and near Bournemouth
The nearest A&E, the practice patients rate highest, and where to go when it’s urgent but not an emergency. In an emergency, call 999.
University Hospitals Dorset saw 60% of major-A&E patients within four hours
Type 1 (major) A&E attendances seen, admitted or discharged within four hours of arrival, by month. NHS England publishes it by trust, not hospital: University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust runs the A&E at The Royal Bournemouth Hospital, the nearest to Bournemouth (1.9 mi).
The share seen within four hours has held near 62% over 18 months. Long waits for a bed are rarer than at 59% of trusts: 5,038 patients in 12 months, 9.9% of emergency admissions through A&E. CQC’s latest ratings for The Royal Bournemouth Hospital: urgent and emergency services good (2018), the hospital overall requires improvement (2026).
South West trusts
Hospitals within 25 miles
| Distance | Hospital | CQC overall | Urgent & emergency |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.9 mi | The Royal Bournemouth Hospital A&E Bournemouth · University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust | Requires improvement2026 | Good2018 |
| 1.9 mi | Royal Bournemouth Hospital Bournemouth · Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | Not rated | — |
| 1.9 mi | University Hospitals Dorset Bournemouth · Dorset Healthcare University NHS Foundation Trust | Not rated | — |
| 3.2 mi | Christchurch Hospital Christchurch · University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust | Good2016 | — |
| 5 mi | Poole Hospital A&E Poole · University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust | Not rated | Good2016 |
| 7.3 mi | Victoria Hospital, Wimborne Wimborne · Dorset Healthcare University NHS Foundation Trust | Not rated | — |
| 10 mi | Swanage Community Hospital Swanage · Dorset Healthcare University NHS Foundation Trust | Not rated | — |
| 14 mi | Lymington New Forest Hospital Lymington · Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust | Not rated | — |
NHS acute hospitals registered with the Care Quality Commission (care directory, 01 October 2026). “A&E” marks a major (type 1) emergency department, open 24 hours and led by consultants, in NHS England’s Emergency Care Data Set; a hospital without the mark may still have a minor injury unit or urgent treatment centre. Ratings run Outstanding, Good, Requires improvement, Inadequate; the year is when each was published. Distances are straight lines from the town centre.
77% of patients rate Bournemouth’s 15 GP practices good
GP Patient Survey 2026 (NHS England, run by Ipsos), about 100 patients a practice, against 77% across England. 22nd of 42 English towns of 138,000 to 265,000, from the highest.
| Practice | Overall experience | Easy by phone | Wait about right | CQC |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southbourne Surgery BH6 5BF · 7,344 adult patients | 95% good · range 89%–97% | 56% | 63% | Good2017 |
| St Alban's Medical Centre BH8 9EW · 9,164 adult patients | 94% good · range 85%–97% | 79% | 89% | Good2019 |
| Littledown Surgery BH7 7BU · 4,977 adult patients | 91% good · range 86%–95% | 66% | 77% | Good2016 |
| The Marine and Oakridge Partnership BH6 3DB · 8,554 adult patients | 85% good · range 77%–91% | 74% | 72% | Good2019 |
| Moordown Medical Centre BH9 2XF · 7,991 adult patients | 85% good · range 75%–91% | 81% | 68% | Good2016 |
| Woodlea House Surgery BH8 9NX · 5,497 adult patients | 82% good · range 75%–88% | 61% | 60% | Good2020 |
| Beaufort Road Surgery BH6 5AJ · 9,730 adult patients | 81% good · range 70%–89% | 71% | 70% | Good2016 |
| James Fisher Medical Centre BH9 3LQ · 10,032 adult patients | 79% good · range 68%–87% | 64% | 68% | Good2016 |
| Crescent Providence Surgery BH1 4HA · 12,010 adult patients | 77% good · range 59%–88% | 61% | 74% | Outstanding2018 |
| Westbourne Medical Centre BH4 9HJ · 18,092 adult patients | 73% good · range 64%–81% | 57% | 57% | Good2019 |
| Denmark Road Medical Centre BH9 1PB · 11,786 adult patients | 73% good · range 48%–89% | 58% | 56% | Good2020 |
| Kinson Road Medical Centre BH10 5EY · 8,735 adult patients | 71% good · range 60%–81% | 59% | 71% | Good2018 |
| Shelley Manor & Holdenhurst Medical Centre BH5 1LX · 22,166 adult patients | 71% good · range 35%–92% | 48% | 67% | Good2021 |
| Talbot Medical Centre BH10 4BX · 20,689 adult patients | 70% good · range 29%–93% | 51% | 56% | Good2018 |
| The Panton Practice BH1 3EG · 14,418 adult patients | 68% good · range 46%–84% | 49% | 54% | Good2019 |
Southbourne Surgery has the city’s highest rating (95%). You can register with any practice whose area covers your address.
GP Patient Survey 2026: surveys sent January to March 2026; results weighted by NHS England. The range is the 95% confidence interval. Adult patients: the survey’s practice population aged 16 and over. A practice counts as in Bournemouth when its main surgery is inside the built-up area; branch surgeries are part of their main practice. CQC ratings © Care Quality Commission.
82% of residents say their health is good or very good
Census 2021, all residents, as answered (not adjusted for age).
Bournemouth’s residents are younger than Dorset’s (18% are 65 or over, against 25%), which accounts for much of the difference. Adjusted for age, 103 report bad health for every 100 expected, close to the national rate.
Show as a table
| Census 2021 | Bournemouth | Dorset | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 82% | 81% | 82% |
| Fair health | 13% | 14% | 13% |
| Bad or very bad health | 5.3% | 5.3% | 5.2% |
| Disabled under the Equality Act | 18% | 19% | 17% |
| Day-to-day activities limited a lot | 7.7% | 7.8% | 7.4% |
Dorset and England: all residents of their built-up areas (towns and cities), from the same Census 2021 output areas.
Bournemouth’s Health Grade is 24th of 45 UK towns of 138,000 to 265,000
Ordered by Health Grade: the top three, the towns either side of Bournemouth, and others in Dorset. Life expectancy for men / women; deaths under 75 per 100 expected.
| # | Town | People | Life expectancy | Deaths under 75 | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Richmond upon Thames London | 192,888 | 82.2 / 86.6 | 64 | A |
| 2 | Kensington and Chelsea London | 143,348 | 81.5 / 86.2 | 72 | B+ |
| 3 | Kingston upon Thames London | 166,333 | 81.1 / 85.3 | 77 | B+ |
| … | |||||
| 10 | Poole Dorset | 141,009 | 80.4 / 83.8 | 89 | C+ |
| … | |||||
| 22 | Norwich Norfolk | 200,744 | 78.8 / 83.0 | 106 | C |
| 23 | Slough Berkshire | 166,868 | 77.8 / 82.4 | 116 | C− |
| 24 | Bournemouth Dorset | 196,453 | 78.5 / 83.1 | 109 | C− |
| 25 | Islington London | 216,309 | 78.1 / 82.8 | 106 | C− |
| 26 | Southend-on-Sea Essex | 182,295 | 78.2 / 82.5 | 113 | C− |
| … | |||||
| 45 | Blackpool Lancashire | 149,087 | 74.3 / 79.2 | 167 | D− |
Health letters rank against every UK town of 1,000 or more; the order here is context only. Welsh towns are graded on life expectancy, healthy life expectancy and the two Census measures: OHID’s early-death, admissions and child-obesity figures cover England.
Health in the places around Bournemouth
Life expectancy for men / women, and the nearest A&E. Tap a town for its health page.
| Town | People | Life expectancy | Nearest A&E | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bournemouth | 196,453 | 78.5 / 83.1 | 1.9 mi | C− |
| West Parley | 3,665 | 81.8 / 86.0 | 3.9 mi | A |
| Bearwood | 4,134 | 78.1 / 81.3 | 3.6 mi | C |
| Poole | 141,009 | 80.4 / 83.8 | 1 mi | C+ |
| Ferndown | 13,267 | 80.7 / 85.6 | 4.9 mi | B+ |
| Christchurch | 48,973 | 80.8 / 84.9 | 2.9 mi | B |
| Merley | 5,489 | 83.8 / 84.4 | 4.2 mi | A |
| West Moors | 10,432 | 79.9 / 85.2 | 5.5 mi | B− |
Merley, 5.5 miles away, has men’s life expectancy of 83.8, 5.3 years longer than Bournemouth’s.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- A&E figures are for the trust. NHS England publishes four-hour waits by trust, not hospital, so University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust’s figures cover every major A&E it runs. They count type 1 (major) departments; minor injury units and urgent treatment centres are left out, which is why they sit below the all-types figure NHS England headlines (75% for England).
- The GP survey is a survey. About 100 patients answer for each practice, so a practice’s figure has a range (shown in the table); small differences between practices aren’t meaningful. The town figure weights each practice by its adult patients, some of whom live outside Bournemouth.
- Adjusted for age. A ratio of 100 means as many deaths, admissions or reports of bad health as England’s rates (England and Wales’s for the Census) would give a town with these ages; 120 means a fifth more.
- Small areas, summed to the town. OHID publishes these figures for middle-layer areas of about 8,000 people; the town’s figure averages the areas it covers, weighted by how many of their residents live in it, so a village shares its area’s figure with the countryside around it.
- Different years. Life expectancy and deaths cover 2019 to 2023; emergency admissions 2016/17 to 2020/21 (the latest OHID publishes for small areas, including the pandemic dip); child obesity the three school years to 2024/25; A&E the 12 months to September 2026; the GP Patient Survey early 2026; CQC ratings were published on different dates, shown in each row.
- Distances are straight lines. Miles are measured from the town’s centre to each site; the road is longer. For an emergency, call 999; for urgent advice, call NHS 111.
Questions about health in Bournemouth
How healthy is Bournemouth?
Bournemouth earns a C− for health, healthier than 24% of UK towns on measures adjusted for age, and 24th of 45 UK towns of its size. Life expectancy is 78.5 for men and 83.1 for women (England 79.1 and 83.0), and there are 109 deaths under 75 for every 100 expected.
Which parts of Bournemouth have the highest life expectancy?
For men, Littledown (83.4), Moordown (82.2) and Northbourne (81.9); the shortest is Boscombe West (73.0). For women, Moordown is highest (87.2) and Boscombe West lowest (78.1). OHID figures for 2019 to 2023, by neighbourhood of about 8,000 people.
How long are A&E waits at The Royal Bournemouth Hospital?
NHS England publishes waits for the trust, University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust. In the 12 months to September 2026 it saw 60% of major-A&E patients within four hours, against 61% across England; in September 2026 the figure was 65%. In an emergency call 999; for urgent advice call NHS 111.
Can I get an NHS dentist in Bournemouth?
It is harder than in most of England. In the 2026 GP Patient Survey, 75% of adults in the Dorset area who tried to get an NHS dental appointment in the last two years got one, against 82% across England. Practices taking new NHS patients are listed on the NHS website’s Find a dentist service.
Which GP practice in Bournemouth do patients rate highest?
In the 2026 GP Patient Survey, Southbourne Surgery (95% good overall), St Alban's Medical Centre (94% good overall) and Littledown Surgery (91% good overall). Across all 15 Bournemouth practices, 77% of patients rate their practice good, against 77% in England.
What is the life expectancy in Bournemouth?
78.5 years for men and 83.1 for women, on OHID’s figures for 2019 to 2023. Men can expect 64.2 of those years and women 66.5 in good health.
CQC ratings © Care Quality Commission.
Sources: OHID Fingertips small-area indicators (life expectancy and deaths 2019–23, emergency admissions 2016/17–2020/21, NCMP 2022/23–2024/25); House of Commons Library MSOA names · ONS health state life expectancy for small areas (MSOAs), England and Wales, 2019 to 2023 (healthy life expectancy) · ONS Census 2021 general health and disability, adjusted for age · Care Quality Commission care directory and latest ratings, 01 October 2026 · NHS Organisation Data Service · GP Patient Survey 2026 (NHS England, run by Ipsos) · NHS England, A&E Attendances and Emergency Admissions (monthly, by trust) and Emergency Care Data Set activity by site, June–September 2026 (type 1 A&Es) · MHCLG English Indices of Deprivation 2025 · TownRatings grades: our own summary of the data, ranked against UK towns only. All under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.