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Median age by town: the oldest and youngest places in England and Wales

By James Burfield, SEO consultant, Bath · Page updated 18 September 2026 · ONS Census 2021

The middle resident of Rustington is 56 years old; the middle resident of Canterbury is 28. A typical town's estimated median is 42.5, and the two ends of this table are the retirement coast and the university towns.

Age structure explains more about a town than most statistics: it drives school places, GP demand, the shape of the high street and the feel of a Tuesday afternoon. These figures are the 2021 census summed over each town's built-up area, so the boundary matches every other measure on this site. Medians are estimated within five-year census bands; the shares are exact.

The oldest towns

#	Town	County	Median age (est.)	Under 15	65 and over	Residents
1	Rustington	West Sussex	56.2	11.8%	37.4%	33,898
2	Seaford	East Sussex	54.6	12.9%	34.9%	23,849
3	Lytham St Annes	Lancashire	54.4	12.2%	32.2%	42,738
4	Bexhill-on-Sea	East Sussex	54.1	13.0%	34.6%	43,756
5	Lee-on-the-Solent	Hampshire	52.3	14.5%	31.2%	24,275
6	Bridlington	East Riding of Yorkshire	52.3	14.2%	31.7%	34,839
7	Heswall	Metropolitan Borough of Wirral	52.2	14.3%	30.6%	29,066
8	Formby	Sefton	52.1	14.5%	31.4%	22,926
9	Christchurch	Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council	51.7	14.3%	31.7%	49,032
10	Whitstable	Kent	51.3	14.4%	28.8%	32,204
11	Felixstowe	Suffolk	51.0	13.7%	29.5%	24,227
12	Clacton-on-Sea	Essex	50.4	15.4%	29.8%	53,278
13	Broadstairs	Kent	50.4	15.0%	28.9%	25,766
14	Exmouth	Devon	50.3	14.3%	28.8%	35,438
15	Deal	Kent	50.3	14.6%	28.1%	28,996
16	Weymouth	Dorset	50.2	13.9%	27.3%	55,521
17	Stourport-on-Severn	Worcestershire	50.2	14.7%	28.3%	20,326
18	Herne Bay	Kent	49.9	14.4%	28.7%	24,886
19	Dronfield	Derbyshire	49.9	15.4%	29.1%	21,159
20	Great Bookham	Surrey	49.7	16.2%	26.7%	21,674
21	Great Malvern	Worcestershire	49.0	14.7%	26.8%	33,205
22	Beverley	East Riding of Yorkshire	48.9	14.4%	25.3%	30,915
23	Dorchester	Dorset	48.7	14.7%	27.8%	21,344
24	Chester-le-Street	County Durham	48.6	14.5%	24.7%	23,582
25	Southport	Sefton	48.4	14.8%	25.7%	94,379
26	Paignton	Borough of Torbay	48.4	15.6%	26.5%	67,501
27	Maghull	Sefton	48.4	14.7%	26.6%	20,378
28	Clevedon	North Somerset	48.3	15.3%	26.7%	21,104
29	Bognor Regis	West Sussex	48.3	14.4%	27.6%	68,399
30	Crowborough	East Sussex	48.2	15.9%	25.8%	22,015

The youngest towns

Students count as residents where they study, so a large university pulls a town's whole median down: the bottom of this table is a map of campuses.

#	Town	County	Median age (est.)	Under 15	65 and over	Residents
1	Canterbury	Kent	27.5	13.0%	12.8%	55,076
2	Salford	City and Borough of Salford	29.8	17.7%	9.2%	108,347
3	Hatfield	Hertfordshire	30.3	16.0%	10.0%	41,561
4	Manchester	Manchester	30.4	19.1%	8.7%	470,430
5	Nottingham	Nottingham	30.9	17.2%	11.3%	299,806
6	Egham	Surrey	31.1	13.5%	12.7%	27,971
7	Loughborough	Leicestershire	31.4	13.6%	14.5%	64,865
8	Durham	County Durham	31.4	11.1%	17.3%	50,565
9	Oldham	Borough of Oldham	31.6	25.9%	10.2%	110,670
10	Cambridge	Cambridgeshire	31.9	13.8%	11.1%	152,754
11	Oxford	Oxfordshire	32.0	14.5%	12.1%	170,780
12	Bradford	Bradford	33.0	23.8%	11.6%	333,942
13	Nelson	Lancashire	33.4	24.5%	12.4%	33,783
14	Leeds	City and Borough of Leeds	33.4	18.2%	12.8%	536,275
15	Birmingham	City and Borough of Birmingham	33.6	21.2%	12.6%	1,121,377
16	Smethwick	Sandwell	33.7	23.7%	10.7%	56,368
17	Lincoln	Lincolnshire	33.7	15.3%	14.3%	104,594
18	Newcastle upon Tyne	Newcastle upon Tyne	33.9	16.2%	14.6%	286,418
19	Darlaston	Walsall	33.9	24.5%	11.8%	21,587
20	Bristol	City of Bristol	33.9	16.5%	12.8%	425,236
21	Old Trafford	Trafford	34.1	20.0%	10.3%	21,440
22	Leicester	City of Leicester	34.3	19.5%	12.6%	406,669
23	Chafford Hundred	Borough of Thurrock	34.3	23.0%	6.1%	23,585
24	Dewsbury	Kirklees	34.4	22.5%	12.7%	63,729
25	Cardiff	Cardiff	34.5	17.1%	14.4%	348,523
26	Southampton	Southampton	34.7	16.9%	13.8%	249,678
27	Luton	Luton	34.7	21.8%	11.9%	233,581
28	Little Hulton	City and Borough of Salford	34.7	23.4%	13.5%	25,806
29	Guildford	Surrey	34.7	15.4%	13.8%	77,826
30	Coventry	Coventry	34.9	18.6%	14.3%	344,413

Source: ONS Census 2021, table TS007A (age by five-year bands), summed from output areas to ONS built-up areas. England and Wales, towns of 20,000+ residents. Each town links to its page, where age sits alongside prices, crime, broadband and the counted high street on the same boundary.

Common questions

Which town in England has the oldest population?

Rustington in West Sussex, with an estimated median age of 56.2 and 37.4% of its 33,898 residents aged 65 or over at the 2021 census. The top of the table is dominated by the south-coast retirement towns, which is the census confirming what everyone already suspected, with numbers attached.

Which town has the youngest population?

Canterbury, with an estimated median age of 27.5. The bottom of the table is university towns and student-heavy cities: term-time students count as residents where they study, which pulls a whole town's median down by a decade or more.

Why are the medians labelled estimated?

The census publishes age in five-year bands at this geography, so the band holding a town's middle resident is exact and the single figure is interpolated within it. Single year of age exists only for larger areas. The under-15 and 65-and-over shares are exact sums of complete bands, which is why they carry no label.