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After grinding week in, week out for more than 40 years, retirees deserve to be well looked after. But how well looked after you are depends a lot on where you live. Now, the Times has revealed exactly where in England OAPs are the healthiest and happiest.
The research was compiled for the paper by health tech company Health Connect Global. The company dug into stats across six factors: average life expectancy, GP provision, A&E wait times, the referral period for trauma and orthopaedic services, number of care home beds and where each location ranks in the ONS’s annual happiness index.
Once all that data was crunched, the Times revealed that Windsor and Maidenhead is home to England’s best place to grow old right now. The royal borough, just 20 minutes from London, has the second highest average life expectancy (83.2 years) after Wokingham (84 years) and is joint first in England for the proportion of referrals to trauma and orthopaedic services within 18 weeks. It also got high scores when it came to happiness, GP provision, the number of care homes and A&E waiting times. You can read more about why Windsor and Maidenhead is such a great place to retire here.
Second place went to Hartlepool in County Durham, a runner-up that the Times said ‘turns assumptions on their heads’. Although it is known for being one of the most disadvantaged towns in England, Hartlepool ranks as a great place to grow old because it has one of the best performing A&Es in the country.
H’pool ranked first in the country for A&E waiting times and fourth for referrals for trauma and orthopaedic services within 18 weeks. Beyond being well looked after in hospital, a local retiree there told the paper that ‘there are so many activities you can be involved with’ from sewing classes to reading groups to calligraphy.
Solihull in the West Midlands landed in third place. It did best in the happiness category (claiming fourth spot), which was based on the Office for National Statistics’ index of the public’s life satisfaction, happiness, and anxiety levels. It also performs well in terms of life expectancy – it’s joint fifth in the UK with an average life expectancy of 82 years.
Most of the top 10 is taken up by towns and cities in the Midlands and the north. See below for the full list.
The 10 best places to retire in the UK in 2026, according to the Times
- Windsor and Maidenhead
- Hartlepool
- Solihull
- Wolverhampton
- York
- Wokingham
- Sefton
- Stockton-on-Tees
- Sheffield
- Reading
Find the Times’ full article here.
📍 Time Out’s full list of the best places to visit in the UK in 2026.
Plus: The best new things to do in the UK in 2026.
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