Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Some 24,307 people live in this large town, in Hampshire, South East.
Lee-on-the-Solent’s strongest subject is jobs & income (A): households earn a mean £63,301 a year, and 1.8% of 16 to 64s claim unemployment benefits. Buying a home costs less than in most towns (A−): a typical home costs £375,000 and rent runs £1,173 a month. What counts against it is schools: primary results beat 27% of towns in England; secondary results beat 14% of towns in England. The overall grade comes out at A, #28 of 76 in Hampshire. Nationally, it does better than 88% of UK towns. Its other grades sit near the middle: B for walkability and B for hazard risk.
Figures: income, ONS · claimants, DWP · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · commuting, Census 2021 · flood risk, Environment Agency.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within England), ordered by how far Lee-on-the-Solent is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The 3 things Lee-on-the-Solent does most differently from other towns.
Historic England lists 28 buildings inside Lee-on-the-Solent’s built-up area, 1 of them Grade II*.
4% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.
Explore the history →28 listed buildings in Lee-on-the-Solent.
Le Breton Farmhouse: Photo: Chris debian · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Stubbington War Memorial: Photo: Barry Shimmon · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Church of St Faith: Photo: Hassocks5489 · CC0 · Holy Rood Church: Photo: Hassocks5489 · CC0
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Lee-on-the-Solent.
Children under 15 make up 14%, below Hampshire’s towns (17%) and England’s towns (18%) alike. 8.7% of residents are aged 15 to 24. The median resident of Lee-on-the-Solent is 52.3 years old.
52% women, 48% men
About 91 men for every 100 women. Across England, 51% of residents are women. Women live longer than men, so towns with many older residents have more women.
| Lee-on-the-Solent | Hampshire | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 14% | 17% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 8.7% | 12% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 17% | 26% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 28% | 26% | 25% |
| 65+ | 31% | 20% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 14% | 16% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 6.6% | 5.7% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 19% | 19% | 17% |
| Degree level | 33% | 33% | 34% |
ONS Census 2021 · Hampshire and England: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
One of its 6 schools is below, with the reason it’s listed. At the town’s 3 primary schools, 57% of pupils reach the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (three-year average). Secondary results at the 6 secondary schools within 3 km: an Attainment 8 score of 40.4, with 35% at grade 5 or above in English and maths.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crofton Anne Dale Junior SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 367 | C |
Council and housing-body homes hold 7% of households. 12% rent privately, lower than both Hampshire’s towns (18%) and England’s towns (21%). The £375,000 median rests on 1,151 standard sales inside the built-up area (September 2023 to August 2026).
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £516,250 | 428 |
| Semi-detached | £354,000 | 303 |
| Terraced | £300,000 | 242 |
| Flat or maisonette | £195,500 | 178 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
Nearly a fifth of residents in Lee-on-the-Solent live with a disability. The nearest A&E to Lee-on-the-Solent is Queen Alexandra Hospital, 6.8 miles away. Life expectancy here is 84.9 for women and 81.7 for men (2019–23). 2 GP practices serve the town; 62% of patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey.
| Census 2021 | Lee-on-the-Solent | Hampshire | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 82% | 83% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 4.6% | 4.3% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 19% | 17% | 17% |
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · OHID Fingertips, life expectancy 2019–23 · OGL · Census health answers are raw, so younger towns score better on them; for the Health Grade we use age-adjusted figures like life expectancy and early deaths.
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
The pre-1919 share of homes is 4%. Grade II* covers 1 of them. For its size, Lee-on-the-Solent has 12 listed buildings per 10,000 residents, below Hampshire’s towns (26) and England’s towns (39) alike.
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
Town centres with shops, stations and nightlife record more crime per resident: police.uk counts crimes where they happen, not where victims live.
Violence and sexual offences were 51% of the crimes. Homes saw 5 burglaries and acts of damage per 1,000 residents a year, below Hampshire’s towns (8.7) and England’s towns (9.4) alike. In the 12 months to August 2026, police logged 804 crimes and 211 reports of anti-social behaviour inside Lee-on-the-Solent’s built-up area.
Not gradedAnti-social behaviour, shoplifting and other theft are shown but left out of the Safety Grade, which counts violence and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident.
data.police.uk street-level crime · points inside the ONS built-up-area boundary · OGL · The police category of violence and sexual offences includes harassment and stalking.
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 34% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
82% of commuters drove, higher than both Hampshire’s towns (75%) and England’s towns (70%). For 39% of commuters, work was under 5 km away. Of the commuters living in Lee-on-the-Solent, 12% work in the town itself. The town counts 0.4 jobs per working resident.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Lee-on-the-Solent. Best known first.
MuseumHovercraft Museumin town
Castle · English HeritageCalshot Castle4.6 km outside town, to the west
Historic shipHMS Holland 14.3 km outside town, to the southeast
Abbey or priory · English HeritageTitchfield Abbey2.2 km outside town, to the north
Historic shipHMS Alliance4.3 km outside town, to the southeast
Museum · English HeritageFort Brockhurst2.5 km outside town, to the eastPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Large town in Hampshire, England
Lee-on-the-Solent is a built-up area of 24,307 people, in the Fareham council area. TownRatings uses ONS’s 2022 built-up areas as towns: the physical town, as people mean the word, rather than a council district, so its figures cover the town itself.
Built from ONS geography and Census 2021
The nearest built-up areas, from ONS’s 2022 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lee-on-the-Solent | 24,307 | — | A | A− | A− | A− |
| Gosport | 70,120 | 2.8 | C− | B | C− | C− |
| Fareham | 42,633 | 3 | A− | A | C | B |
| Locks Heath | 35,744 | 4.2 | A | A− | B− | A |
| Knowle | 1,487 | 4.7 | — | A | D | B+ |
| East Cowes | 8,424 | 5.2 | D | C− | C | C+ |
| Whiteley | 9,350 | 5.2 | A− | B | C+ | A |
| Hamble-le-Rice | 4,613 | 5.7 | A− | A− | B− | A− |
Knowle has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
GCSE results trail 86% of towns in England, and primary results trail 73% (Department for Education, Attainment 8 and Key Stage 2).
Homes cost more than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £375,000, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. By type: flats £195,500, terraced houses £300,000, semi-detached houses £354,000 and detached houses £516,250. Household incomes are higher than in 76% of UK towns, so cost of living still grades A−.
Sources: ONS Census 2021, output areas summed to the ONS 2022 built-up area · HM Land Registry Price Paid (standard sales, September 2023 to August 2026) · ONS Price Index of Private Rents (August 2026, by council) · MHCLG and Welsh Government council tax, Band D 2026–27 (with parish precepts in England) · data.police.uk street-level crime, 36 months to August 2026, points inside the built-up-area boundary · ONS small-area life expectancy and healthy life expectancy, 2019 to 2023 (England and Wales), OHID Fingertips small-area indicators (England) and Census 2021 health, adjusted for age · ONS small-area income estimates (financial year ending 2023) · DWP claimant count via Nomis (January to August 2026) · Historic England, National Heritage List for England (listed buildings, scheduled monuments, registered parks and gardens, battlefields, World Heritage Sites), October 2026, inside the ONS 2022 built-up-area boundary · Valuation Office Agency, Council Tax: stock of properties by build period (31 March 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.