Photo: Gareth James · CC BY-SA 2.09 years separate the longest- and shortest-lived parts of Ipswich
Inside the city, men’s life expectancy runs from 74.5 in Maidenhall, Stoke & Port to 83.6 in Bixley, Warren Heath & Nacton, 2.8 miles apart. Life expectancy is 79.4 for men and 83.0 for women. England as a whole stood at 79.1 and 83.0 over 2019 to 2023. Ipswich grades C for health: life expectancy, healthy life expectancy, early deaths, hospital admissions, child obesity and Census health, each adjusted for age; #31 of 34 in Suffolk.
What stands out about health in Ipswich
A 9-year gap from one part of Ipswich to another
Men in Bixley, Warren Heath & Nacton can expect to live to 83.6, longer than the English average of 79.1. In Maidenhall, Stoke & Port, 2.8 miles away, the figure is 74.5, and Westgate records 139 deaths under 75 for every 100 expected for its ages. For women the range is 79.7 in Maidenhall, Stoke & Port to 87.8 in Broke Hall. Neighbourhoods ↓
A&E waits run longer than England’s
East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the A&E at Ipswich Hospital, saw 56% of major-A&E patients within four hours in the 12 months to September 2026, against 61% across England: 74th of 117 trusts. 11% of patients admitted through its A&Es waited more than 12 hours from the decision to admit, against 13% in England. A&E ↓
NHS dentists are harder to get than in most of England
Of adults in the Norfolk and Suffolk area who tried to get an NHS dental appointment in the last two years, 76% succeeded; across England it was 82%. Dentists ↓
More of Ipswich’s children are obese
23% of Year 6 children (aged 10 to 11) were measured as obese over the last three school years, against 22.3% across England; more than in 80% of UK towns. Health Grade ↓
Men live longer lives than Ipswich’s level of deprivation would suggest
25% of Ipswich’s residents are income-deprived. Across England’s towns that predicts men’s life expectancy of 78.4; Ipswich’s is 79.4. For its circumstances ↓
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.
Ipswich grades C for health
Healthier than 27% of UK towns, on age-adjusted measures.
Behind the typical UK town on every measure. Even its strongest, disability and women’s life expectancy, are in the bottom 40% of UK towns; child obesity and deaths under 75 are furthest behind. Among the 51 UK towns of 106,000 to 205,000 people, Ipswich’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 Ipswich runs from 74.5 to 83.6
Life expectancy at birth, 2019–23, in Ipswich’s 17 middle-layer neighbourhoods (about 8,000 people each). Circles are sized by residents and show men’s life expectancy.
The gap follows deprivation closely: Gipping & Chantry Park, where 37% of residents are income-deprived, has men’s life expectancy of 76.4. Westgate has the most deaths under 75 for its ages (139 per 100 expected), against 58 in Bixley, Warren Heath & Nacton.
Show every measure as a table
| Neighbourhood | Men | Women | Deaths under 75 | Emergency admissions | Year 6 obese | Income-deprived |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bixley, Warren Heath & Nacton | 83.6 | 86.3 | 58 | 71 | 14% | 5.9% |
| Holywells | 82.3 | 85.7 | 83 | 83 | 21% | 19% |
| Castle Hill | 82.1 | 84.0 | 70 | 88 | 20% | 12% |
| Christchurch Park | 82.1 | 85.7 | 68 | 83 | 16% | 15% |
| Whitton | 81.9 | 82.0 | 94 | 109 | 31% | 29% |
| Broke Hall | 81.9 | 87.8 | 64 | 81 | 19% | 8.1% |
| Sproughton, Washbrook & Hintlesham | 81.6 | 83.0 | 82 | 81 | 18% | 14% |
| Gainsborough, Greenwich & Orwell | 79.7 | 82.8 | 106 | 102 | 25% | 34% |
| California | 79.3 | 83.5 | 101 | 101 | 22% | 17% |
| Whitehouse | 79.3 | 83.2 | 102 | 107 | 30% | 31% |
| Rushmere | 79.2 | 82.4 | 95 | 101 | 19% | 20% |
| Belstead Hills | 79.1 | 84.0 | 99 | 98 | 25% | 30% |
| Stoke Park | 78.1 | 83.5 | 110 | 96 | 28% | 35% |
| Priory Heath | 77.8 | 81.0 | 123 | 127 | 25% | 34% |
| Gipping & Chantry Park | 76.4 | 79.9 | 138 | 112 | 30% | 37% |
| Westgate | 75.6 | 80.4 | 139 | 106 | 25% | 36% |
| Maidenhall, Stoke & Port | 74.5 | 79.7 | 135 | 117 | 23% | 36% |
Deaths and admissions per 100 expected for each area’s ages (England = 100). Each figure has a range: Maidenhall, Stoke & Port’s men’s life expectancy is 74.5 with a 95% range of 72.8 to 76.2. Neighbourhoods are ONS middle-layer areas at least 30% inside Ipswich; names are the House of Commons Library’s.
East Suffolk and North Essex saw 56% 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: East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust runs the A&E at Ipswich Hospital, the nearest to Ipswich (1.7 mi).
The share seen within four hours rose from an average of 52% in April 2025 to September 2025 to 59% in the latest six months; England’s was 62%. Long waits for a bed are close to the typical trust’s: 6,821 patients in 12 months, 11% of emergency admissions through A&E.
East of England trusts
Hospitals within 25 miles
| Distance | Hospital | CQC overall | Urgent & emergency |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.7 mi | Ipswich Hospital A&E Ipswich · East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust | Not rated | Not rated |
| 1.7 mi | The Ipswich Hospital Ipswich · East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust | Requires improvement2026 | — |
| 15 mi | Colchester General Hospital A&E Colchester · East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust | Requires improvement2025 | Requires improvement2025 |
| 23 mi | West Suffolk Hospital A&E Bury St Edmunds · West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust | Requires improvement2021 | Good2020 |
| 23 mi | West Suffolk Hospital Pathology Services Bury St Edmunds · East Suffolk and North Essex 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.
76% of adults in the Norfolk and Suffolk 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 Ipswich).
Across England 82% of those who tried got an appointment. Of Norfolk and Suffolk patients who did, 67% 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 Ipswich is 1.0 years above 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.
25% of Ipswich’s residents are income-deprived, more than in most English towns. For that level, the line predicts 78.4 years for men; Ipswich’s is 79.4. For women it predicts 82.4, and Ipswich’s 83.0 is 0.6 years above.
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 Ipswich
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.
78% of patients rate Ipswich’s 12 GP practices good
GP Patient Survey 2026 (NHS England, run by Ipsos), about 100 patients a practice, against 77% across England. 21st of 47 English towns of 106,000 to 205,000, from the highest.
| Practice | Overall experience | Easy by phone | Wait about right | CQC |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Orchard Street Medical Practice - White IP4 2PZ · 11,499 adult patients | 89% good · range 73%–96% | 73% | 92% | Good2018 |
| Ivry Street Medical Practice IP1 3QW · 11,614 adult patients | 86% good · range 67%–95% | 63% | 70% | Good2017 |
| Barrack Lane Medical Centre IP1 3NQ · 16,696 adult patients | 82% good · range 66%–92% | 62% | 82% | Good2016 |
| The Derby Road Practice IP3 8DN · 15,497 adult patients | 82% good · range 63%–93% | 74% | 93% | Good2022 |
| Two Rivers Medical Centre IP4 5PB · 24,145 adult patients | 82% good · range 41%–97% | 44% | 79% | Requires improvement2025 |
| Dr Solway & Dr Roy Practice IP4 2PU · 4,696 adult patients | 81% good · range 75%–86% | 73% | 88% | Good2016 |
| Felixstowe Road Medical Practice IP3 9BN · 8,437 adult patients | 80% good · range 69%–88% | 71% | 82% | Good2019 |
| Hawthorn Drive Surgery IP2 0QQ · 8,363 adult patients | 76% good · range 61%–86% | 60% | 81% | Good2024 |
| Ravenswood Medical Practice IP3 9QJ · 12,007 adult patients | 74% good · range 53%–88% | 35% | 80% | Good2024 |
| Burlington Road Surgery IP1 2EU · 13,310 adult patients | 68% good · range 48%–83% | 45% | 75% | Good2018 |
| Cardinal Medical Practice IP1 5EN · 22,666 adult patients | 66% good · range 30%–90% | 25% | 61% | Good2025 |
| St. Helen's Street IP4 2LA · 221 adult patients | 41% good · range 39%–44% | 33% | 35% | Not rated |
Orchard Street Medical Practice - White has the city’s highest rating (89%). 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 Ipswich 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).
Ipswich’s residents are younger than Suffolk’s (17% are 65 or over, against 23%), which accounts for much of the difference. Adjusted for age, 98 report bad health for every 100 expected, close to the national rate.
Show as a table
| Census 2021 | Ipswich | Suffolk | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 82% | 81% | 82% |
| Fair health | 13% | 14% | 13% |
| Bad or very bad health | 4.9% | 5% | 5.2% |
| Disabled under the Equality Act | 18% | 18% | 17% |
| Day-to-day activities limited a lot | 7.2% | 7.4% | 7.4% |
Suffolk and England: all residents of their built-up areas (towns and cities), from the same Census 2021 output areas.
Ipswich’s Health Grade is 24th of 51 UK towns of 106,000 to 205,000
Ordered by Health Grade: the top three, the towns either side of Ipswich, and others in Suffolk. 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+ |
| … | |||||
| 22 | York North Yorkshire | 141,696 | 78.4 / 83.1 | 107 | C |
| 23 | Swindon Wiltshire | 183,687 | 79.0 / 83.1 | 98 | C |
| 24 | Ipswich Suffolk | 151,566 | 79.4 / 83.0 | 102 | C |
| 25 | Norwich Norfolk | 200,744 | 78.8 / 83.0 | 106 | C |
| 26 | Gillingham Kent | 108,485 | 78.4 / 82.7 | 112 | C− |
| … | |||||
| 51 | Oldham Greater Manchester | 110,722 | 74.0 / 78.2 | 166 | 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 Ipswich
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ipswich | 151,566 | 79.4 / 83.0 | 1.7 mi | C |
| Bramford | 2,335 | 80.7 / 82.5 | 4.5 mi | B− |
| Kesgrave | 14,947 | 81.8 / 85.5 | 2 mi | A− |
| Claydon | 3,140 | 80.7 / 82.5 | 5 mi | B− |
| Great Blakenham | 2,188 | 80.2 / 82.9 | 5.7 mi | B− |
| Martlesham Heath | 2,730 | 81.9 / 84.6 | 3.3 mi | A− |
| Holbrook | 2,146 | 83.0 / 86.2 | 5.4 mi | A |
| Martlesham | 1,976 | 81.9 / 84.6 | 3.6 mi | A− |
Holbrook, 5 miles away, has men’s life expectancy of 83.0, 3.6 years longer than Ipswich’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 East Suffolk and North Essex 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 Ipswich.
- 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 Ipswich
How healthy is Ipswich?
Ipswich earns a C for health, healthier than 27% of UK towns on measures adjusted for age, and 24th of 51 UK towns of its size. Life expectancy is 79.4 for men and 83.0 for women (England 79.1 and 83.0), and there are 102 deaths under 75 for every 100 expected.
Which parts of Ipswich have the highest life expectancy?
For men, Bixley, Warren Heath & Nacton (83.6), Holywells (82.3) and Castle Hill (82.1); the shortest is Maidenhall, Stoke & Port (74.5). For women, Broke Hall is highest (87.8) and Maidenhall, Stoke & Port lowest (79.7). OHID figures for 2019 to 2023, by neighbourhood of about 8,000 people.
How long are A&E waits at Ipswich Hospital?
NHS England publishes waits for the trust, East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust. In the 12 months to September 2026 it saw 56% of major-A&E patients within four hours, against 61% across England; in September 2026 the figure was 59%. In an emergency call 999; for urgent advice call NHS 111.
Can I get an NHS dentist in Ipswich?
It is harder than in most of England. In the 2026 GP Patient Survey, 76% of adults in the Norfolk and Suffolk 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 Ipswich do patients rate highest?
In the 2026 GP Patient Survey, Orchard Street Medical Practice - White (89% good overall), Ivry Street Medical Practice (86% good overall) and Barrack Lane Medical Centre (82% good overall). Across all 12 Ipswich practices, 78% of patients rate their practice good, against 77% in England.
What is the life expectancy in Ipswich?
79.4 years for men and 83.0 for women, on OHID’s figures for 2019 to 2023. Men can expect 64.2 of those years and women 65.5 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.