Photo: Stacey Harris · CC BY-SA 2.0Life expectancy in Leigh is higher than in 94% of UK towns: 83.4 for men and 87.5 for women
Across England the figures for 2019 to 2023 are 79.1 and 83.0. Leigh grades A+ 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 Leigh
More A&E patients are seen within four hours than across England
Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, which runs the A&E at The Tunbridge Wells Hospital at Pembury, saw 76% of major-A&E patients within four hours in the 12 months to September 2026, against 61% across England: 5th of 117 trusts. 15% of patients admitted through its A&Es waited more than 12 hours from the decision to admit, against 13% in England. A&E ↓
Fewer of Leigh’s children are obese
11% of Year 6 children (aged 10 to 11) were measured as obese over the last three school years, against 22.3% across England; fewer than in 97% of UK towns. Health Grade ↓
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.
Leigh grades A+ for health
Healthier than 98% of UK towns, on age-adjusted measures.
Ahead of the typical UK town on every measure. Even its weakest, Census bad health and emergency admissions, are in the top 20% of UK towns; women’s years in good health and child obesity lead. Among the 1,215 UK towns of 1,000 to 2,000 people, Leigh’s Health Grade is the 48th 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.
Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells saw 76% 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: Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust runs the A&E at The Tunbridge Wells Hospital at Pembury, the nearest to Leigh (5.1 mi).
The share seen within four hours slipped from an average of 80% in April 2025 to September 2025 to 75% in the latest six months; England’s was 62%. Long waits for a bed are commoner than at 60% of trusts: 4,073 patients in 12 months, 15% of emergency admissions through A&E. CQC’s latest ratings for The Tunbridge Wells Hospital at Pembury: urgent and emergency services requires improvement (2018), the hospital overall requires improvement (2025).
South East trusts
Hospitals within 25 miles
| Distance | Hospital | CQC overall | Urgent & emergency |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2.8 mi | Tonbridge Cottage Hospital Tonbridge · Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust | Not rated | — |
| 4.4 mi | Fordcombe Hospital Tunbridge Wells · Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust | Good2016 | — |
| 5.1 mi | The Tunbridge Wells Hospital at Pembury A&E Tunbridge Wells · Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust | Requires improvement2025 | Requires improvement2018 |
| 6.5 mi | Sevenoaks Hospital and Urgent Treatment Centre Sevenoaks · Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust | Not rated | — |
| 10 mi | Crowborough War Memorial Hospital Crowborough · Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust | Not rated | — |
| 10 mi | The Queen Victoria Hospital (East Grinstead) East Grinstead · Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | Good2019 | — |
| 13 mi | Orpington Hospital Orpington · King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | Requires improvement2022 | — |
| 13 mi | Maidstone Hospital A&E Maidstone · Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust | Requires improvement2024 | Requires improvement2018 |
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.
Care in and near Leigh
The nearest A&E, GP practices, and where to go when it’s urgent but not an emergency. In an emergency, call 999.
No GP practice in Leigh itself
The nearest practices.
| Practice | Distance | CQC rating |
|---|---|---|
| Hildenborough & Tonbridge Medical Group Tonbridge TN11 9HL | 1.8 mi | Good2017 |
| Tonbridge Medical Group Tonbridge TN9 1EP | 2.4 mi | Good2017 |
| Warders Medical Centre Tonbridge TN9 1LA | 2.7 mi | Good2020 |
| St Andrews Medical Centre Tunbridge Wells TN4 0LZ | 3.2 mi | Good2017 |
| Rusthall Medical Centre Tunbridge Wells TN4 8UW | 4.1 mi | Good2017 |
| Clanricarde Medical Centre Tunbridge Wells TN4 9TF | 4.5 mi | Good2018 |
GP practices registered with the Care Quality Commission, placed in the town by their postcode. A practice counts as in Leigh when its surgery is inside the built-up area; branch surgeries are part of their main practice. You can register with any practice whose area covers your address.
84% of adults in the Kent and Medway 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 Leigh).
Across England 82% of those who tried got an appointment. Of Kent and Medway patients who did, 75% 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.
More people in Leigh call their health good than across Kent
Census 2021, all residents, as answered (not adjusted for age).
Leigh’s residents are older than Kent’s (24% are 65 or over, against 19%), which accounts for much of the difference. Adjusted for age, 62 report bad health for every 100 expected, fewer than the national rate.
Show as a table
| Census 2021 | Leigh | Kent | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 85% | 82% | 82% |
| Fair health | 11% | 13% | 13% |
| Bad or very bad health | 3.8% | 5.1% | 5.2% |
| Disabled under the Equality Act | 14% | 18% | 17% |
| Day-to-day activities limited a lot | 5.9% | 7.4% | 7.4% |
Kent and England: all residents of their built-up areas (towns and cities), from the same Census 2021 output areas.
Leigh’s Health Grade is 48th of 1,215 UK towns of 1,000 to 2,000
Ordered by Health Grade: the top three, the towns either side of Leigh, and others in Kent. Life expectancy for men / women; deaths under 75 per 100 expected.
| # | Town | People | Life expectancy | Deaths under 75 | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | East Keswick West Yorkshire | 1,145 | 86.0 / 88.4 | 45 | A+ |
| 2 | Bardsey West Yorkshire | 1,819 | 86.0 / 88.4 | 45 | A+ |
| 3 | Upper Basildon Berkshire | 1,074 | 86.0 / 87.7 | 51 | A+ |
| … | |||||
| 46 | Rotherfield East Sussex | 1,219 | 84.4 / 86.8 | 57 | A+ |
| 47 | Hauxton Cambridgeshire | 1,322 | 84.1 / 86.8 | 52 | A+ |
| 48 | Leigh Kent | 1,104 | 83.4 / 87.5 | 57 | A+ |
| 49 | Horsted Keynes West Sussex | 1,121 | 84.1 / 87.5 | 58 | A+ |
| 50 | Caldy Merseyside | 1,227 | 83.9 / 86.3 | 56 | A+ |
| … | |||||
| 86 | Horsmonden Kent | 1,580 | 84.3 / 86.6 | 63 | A+ |
| … | |||||
| 99 | Sundridge Kent | 1,190 | 83.1 / 86.8 | 61 | A |
| … | |||||
| 251 | Plaxtol Kent | 1,137 | 82.1 / 85.4 | 63 | A |
| … | |||||
| 1215 | Toll Bar South Yorkshire | 1,213 | 73.1 / 77.6 | 179 | 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 Leigh
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leigh | 1,104 | 83.4 / 87.5 | 5.1 mi | A+ |
| Hildenborough | 4,943 | 82.7 / 86.6 | 5 mi | A |
| Tonbridge | 36,136 | 79.6 / 84.8 | 3.9 mi | B− |
| Southborough | 9,632 | 80.2 / 84.3 | 2.1 mi | B− |
| Rusthall and Langton Green | 7,783 | 80.9 / 83.4 | 3.6 mi | B |
| Royal Tunbridge Wells | 51,215 | 80.5 / 84.3 | 1.8 mi | B |
| Hadlow | 3,168 | 81.6 / 85.3 | 5.5 mi | B− |
| Plaxtol | 1,137 | 82.1 / 85.4 | 7.7 mi | A |
Tonbridge, 2.7 miles away, has men’s life expectancy of 79.6, 3.8 years shorter than Leigh’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 Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS 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).
- 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 Leigh
How healthy is Leigh?
Leigh earns an A+ for health, healthier than 98% of UK towns on measures adjusted for age, and 48th of 1,215 UK towns of its size. Life expectancy is 83.4 for men and 87.5 for women (England 79.1 and 83.0), and there are 57 deaths under 75 for every 100 expected.
How long are A&E waits at The Tunbridge Wells Hospital at Pembury?
NHS England publishes waits for the trust, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust. In the 12 months to September 2026 it saw 76% of major-A&E patients within four hours, against 61% across England; in September 2026 the figure was 73%. In an emergency call 999; for urgent advice call NHS 111.
Can I get an NHS dentist in Leigh?
In the 2026 GP Patient Survey, 84% of adults in the Kent and Medway 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.
How many GP practices are there in Leigh?
There’s no GP surgery inside Leigh itself; the nearest is about 1.8 mi away.
What is the life expectancy in Leigh?
83.4 years for men and 87.5 for women, on OHID’s figures for 2019 to 2023. Men can expect 71.8 of those years and women 74.3 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.