Kent Life Expectancy by District and Constituency (2001–2024): Biggest Gaps, Biggest Gains and What It Means for Folkestone & Hythe’s Ageing Population

Kent is often described as a single place with a single health story. The reality, once you look at the life-expectancy numbers, is very different.

Across the county, people are generally living longer than they were twenty years ago. But some districts have gained many more years of life than others, and some neighbourhoods within those districts are still being left behind.

Nowhere is that more obvious than on the east Kent coast. For men, Folkestone & Hythe is the standout story. For women, Thanet is. Set against the Chief Medical Officer’s 2023 warning about an ageing England, it all points to one simple conclusion: Kent is becoming older, but it is not becoming older evenly.

What “life expectancy” actually means

Before getting lost in the numbers, it is worth explaining what they are – and what they are not.

• Life expectancy at birth is the average number of years a baby would live if today’s death rates at each age stayed the same for the rest of their life.

• Life expectancy at age 65 tells you how many extra years someone aged 65 can expect to live, on average, if today’s death rates stay put.

These are called period life expectancies because they are snapshots based on a particular period (for example 2022–24). They summarise what mortality looks like now. They do not guarantee how long any individual will live, because death rates change over time and people move around.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) smooths out random bumps by reporting local figures in three-year blocks (such as 2022–24), especially for smaller places where the number of deaths each year is relatively low.

A county moving in different directions

When you line up the 12 Kent districts, the gaps are immediately clear.

For men at birth, 2022–24 life expectancy runs from:

• Sevenoaks – 82.2 years at the top,

• down to Thanet – 77.2 years at the bottom.

That is a 5-year gap in the “average lifespan” implied by current death rates – inside a single county.

“Male life expectancy at birth, Kent districts, 2022–24”.

For women at birth, the pattern is similar, but the spread is slightly smaller:

• Sevenoaks – 85.3 years,

• Thanet – 82.0 years,

a 3.3-year gap between the longest- and shortest-lived districts.

“Female life expectancy at birth, Kent districts, 2022–24”.

These differences are not small fluctuations. They represent persistent differences in health, income, housing, work and access to services.

What happens after 65 – and why it matters

Looking at older ages, the gaps remain.

A man who is 65 in:

• Sevenoaks can expect around 20.1 extra years (so, on average, living to about 85).

• Thanet can expect about 17.8 extra years (to around 83).

For women, Sevenoaks again sits at the top of the Kent table, while Thanet is close to the bottom.

“Life expectancy at age 65 – men and women, Kent districts, 2022–24 (years remaining)”.

These aren’t just end-of-life issues. They shape how long people can expect to spend in retirement, how many years they are likely to live with long-term conditions and how much pressure falls on local health and care services.

The longer view: gains since the early 2000s

To see whether places are catching up or falling behind, you have to look at change over time.

From 2001–03 to 2022–24, life expectancy at birth has risen in every Kent district – but not by the same amount.

For men at birth, increases range from just over 2 years in some districts up to more than 3 years in others. For women, some districts have seen rises of well over 3 years, while others, such as Thanet, have seen much smaller gains.

“Change in life expectancy at birth, 2001–03 to 2022–24, by district and sex”.

This is where some of the most important local stories emerge.

Folkestone & Hythe: men’s life expectancy rose – but a slowly ageing success story

For men, Folkestone & Hythe is one of the clearest stories in the county.

• In 2001–03, male life expectancy at birth in the district was 75.9 years.

• By 2022–24, it had risen to 78.2 years.

That is a gain of +2.3 years in two decades. In simple terms, a boy born in Folkestone & Hythe today can expect, on average, a little over two more years of life than a boy born there at the start of the century – assuming current death rates.

Women in Folkestone & Hythe have also seen improvements, starting from a relatively high base, and life expectancy at 65 has increased for both sexes. Men aged 65 now have an average 18.4 years of life remaining, and women 21.2 years.

But these gains sit on top of something else: Folkestone & Hythe is becoming one of the oldest corners of Kent.

The Chief Medical Officer’s 2023 report on England’s ageing society shows that:

• The number of people aged 75 and over has already tripled nationally since the NHS was founded.

• Rural and coastal areas – exactly the kind of places that make up east Kent – are ageing fastest.

Local data for Kent show that districts like Folkestone & Hythe already have more deaths than births each year, because the population is older and more people are in their 70s and 80s. Projections suggest that Folkestone & Hythe will have the highest share of over-75s of any district in Kent in the coming decades.

Put together, this means Folkestone & Hythe is both living longer and growing older at the same time. The district is quietly becoming a test case for what an ageing coastal England will look like – with all the pressures that brings on GP surgeries, hospitals, home care, accessible housing and transport.

Thanet: women’s life expectancy up by +1.7 years – but deep inequalities remain

If Folkestone & Hythe is the headline for men, Thanet is the headline for women.

• In 2001–03, women in Thanet had a life expectancy at birth of 80.3 years.

• By 2022–24, that had edged up to 82.0 years.

That is a gain of +1.7 years – a clear improvement. Women in Thanet today can expect, on average, nearly two more years of life than their mothers’ generation.

Yet Thanet still has:

• The lowest female life expectancy at birth in Kent (82.0).

• The lowest male life expectancy at birth (77.2).

• Some of the highest levels of deprivation and long-term illness in the county.

Older ONS tables for 2016–2020, which look at life expectancy for each small neighbourhood (MSOA), show a spread of more than 9 years for women’s life expectancy at birth between the best and worst parts of Thanet – and more than 11 years for men. In other words, there is no single “Thanet life expectancy”: there are multiple Thanets inside the same district.

The Chief Medical Officer’s core warning is that longer lives only count as a success if those extra years are lived in reasonable health. For parts of Thanet, that is far from guaranteed unless housing, work, food, transport and basic public services improve.

The west–east divide within Kent

Step back, and a familiar pattern emerges.

• West Kent districts such as Sevenoaks and Tunbridge Wells generally have the highest life expectancies, and smaller gaps within them.

• East Kent districts such as Thanet, Swale and Folkestone & Hythe tend to sit at the lower end, with bigger gaps between neighbourhoods.

Within a single district, the gap in life expectancy between the richest and poorest neighbourhoods can be as large as eight to ten years for men and several years for women. In other words, the postcode you live in can still be as important for your health as the doctor you see.

An older Kent: the Chief Medical Officer’s warning in local form

The Chief Medical Officer’s 2023 annual report, Health in an Ageing Society, is not about Kent specifically – but its arguments might as well have been written with east Kent in mind.

Nationally, the report shows that:

• People are living longer overall, but the number of very old people (75+) is rising fastest.

• Older people are increasingly concentrated in rural and coastal areas, while big cities stay relatively young.

• Without planning, health and care services will be overwhelmed, housing will not be suitable for older bodies, and more people will spend many years in poor health.

Folkestone & Hythe and Thanet match that description almost perfectly: older, coastal, with rising numbers of older residents and long-standing deprivation in parts of each district.

Combined with the ONS life-expectancy figures, this gives a clear picture:

• Kent will have more older people,

• some districts will have many more older people,

• and within those districts, some neighbourhoods will still be living shorter lives than others.

Kent’s 18 constituencies: a political map of longevity – and inequality within it

Life expectancy is not just a council-by-council story. It is also a constituency story, because MPs represent the people living at both the long-lived and short-lived ends of the spectrum.

Using the Health Equals dataset for parliamentary constituencies, Kent’s 18 seats show a clear spread in life expectancy at birth (persons, 2022). At the high end we see:

• Sevenoaks – 83.6 years

• Tonbridge – 82.8

• Weald of Kent – 82.7

• Tunbridge Wells – 82.4

At the lower end sit:

• Sittingbourne and Sheppey – 79.5

• Folkestone and Hythe – 79.3

• East Thanet – 79.0 years

The gap between the “best” and “worst” constituencies on this measure is about 4.6 years.

“Life expectancy at birth by parliamentary constituency – Kent (2022)”.

But just as important is what’s happening inside constituencies. Health Equals also publishes the gap in life expectancy between the highest- and lowest-life-expectancy MSOAs in each seat (based on 2019–23 data). This gives a simple inequality score for each constituency.

In Kent, some constituencies show gaps close to ten years between neighbourhoods. For example:

• Chatham and Aylesford has a gap of about 9.4 years between its best and worst MSOAs.

• Gillingham and Rainham – 8.5 years.

• Canterbury – 8.4 years, and East Thanet – 8.4 years.

By contrast:

• Weald of Kent has a much smaller internal gap of around 3.7 years.

• Tonbridge – 4.5 years.

So some constituencies don’t just have shorter lives overall; they have sharper divides within them.

Older ONS MSOA tables for 2016–2020 back this up. Looking at the range of life expectancy at birth and at age 65 across MSOAs in each district, places like Shepway (the old name covering what is now Folkestone & Hythe) and Thanet show particularly wide spreads – often 9–12 years between the longest- and shortest-lived neighbourhoods for men at birth, and big gaps at age 65 as well.

That helps to explain how a district such as Folkestone & Hythe can show strong long-term improvement in its average figures for men, but still contain pockets where people die many years earlier than the Kent average.

Unequal lives inside constituencies: the MSOA gap (2019–2023)

A constituency can look “average” on paper while hiding sharp differences between its neighbourhoods. Health Equals measures this directly by taking the life expectancy at birth for the highest-life-expectancy MSOA and subtracting the lowest-life-expectancy MSOA inside each parliamentary constituency. The result is the gap in years — a simple inequality gauge.

For Kent, the gaps are not small. Chatham and Aylesford shows the widest split at 9.4 years. Gillingham and Rainham follows at 8.5 years, with Canterbury and East Thanet both at 8.4 years. At the other end, Weald of Kent shows a smaller gap of 3.7 years, and Tonbridge stands at 4.5 years.

A quick note on terminology: an MSOA (Middle Layer Super Output Area) is a standard statistical neighbourhood used by ONS (it is not the same as a ward). These MSOA life expectancy figures are for 2019–2023 — years that include the pandemic period — so they capture inequality during a time when mortality patterns were unusually disrupted.

Why this matters for local decisions

Life expectancy is not just an abstract number for statisticians. It is a litmus test for how well a place supports people to live long, healthy lives – and a warning light for what is coming.

For councillors, ICS boards and MPs in Kent, the data now pose some direct questions:

• Are services in Folkestone & Hythe and Thanet being planned and funded as if they are about to host the largest concentrations of over-75s in the county?

• Are planning, transport, new housing, town-centre design – decisions being made with an older, less mobile, population in mind?

• Are we investing enough in the basics that extend healthy life: decent housing, warm homes, smoking cessation, good food, accessible green space and public transport?

The life-expectancy figures show where people are living longer. The Chief Medical Officer’s report shows how many more will reach very old age. The constituency data and MSOA ranges show who is being left behind inside each area.

Taken together, they make one simple argument:

If Kent does not plan now for a much older – and still unequal – coastal population, it will end up trying to retrofit services to a demographic reality that has already arrived.

The Shepway Vox Team

The Velvet Voices of Voxatiousness