Use this page to explore a range of indicators related to health in London.
Infant mortality rate per 1,000 live births by London borough (2022)
Last updated: September 2024
Next estimated update: September 2025
What’s this indicator?
This indicator shows the infant mortality rate in London boroughs. This means the number of deaths of children under the age of one year, per 1,000 live births. The data is a three year average. You can view a map of this data at the bottom of the page.
What does it tell us?
Whilst infant mortality rates vary significantly across London boroughs, in all but ten boroughs, they are lower than in England overall.
The average number of deaths per 1,000 live births in 2022 was 3.3 in London, whereas in England it was 3.9. Lambeth and Hillingdon were the boroughs with the highest infant mortality rate in London (5.4 per 1,000 live births). Haringey was the London borough with the lowest infant mortality rate (1.6 per 1,000 live births).
Map of infant mortality …
Premature deaths per 100,000 under-75 year olds by London borough (2022)
When somebody under the age of 75 dies, it counts as a premature death. This indicator shows the number of premature deaths per 100,000 under-75 year olds in each London borough.
The average number of deaths per 100,000 under-75 year olds in England is 342, whereas in London it is 309.
Eight London boroughs have a rate of premature deaths higher than England’s average. These boroughs are generally in the east of the city- such as Barking and Dagenham (433 per 100,000 under-75 year olds), Hackney (404), and Tower Hamlets (394). The borough with the lowest premature death rate is Richmond (225 per 100,000).
City of London’s figures have been suppressed since their data sample is too small.
Childhood obesity for children in Year 6 by London borough (2012/13 and 2022/23)
Childhood obesity is more prevalent in London than England overall. In 2022/23, 24.8% of children in Year 6 were considered obese in London, compared to 22.7% in England.
Over the last decade, the prevalence of childhood obesity has risen by 2.4 percentage points in London and 3.8 percentage points in England. The majority of London boroughs had a higher prevalence of childhood obesity than England overall in both 2012/13 and 2022/23.
Public Health England’s latest figures in 2022/23 show that Barking and Dagenham has the highest proportion of childhood obesity out of all London boroughs at 31.7%. The borough also had the largest rise in childhood obesity since 2012/13 (a 6.5 percentage point increase). At the other end of the scale, 12% of Year 6 children in Richmond upon Thames are obese in 2022/23 with just a 0.3 percentage point decrea…
Life expectancy at birth by borough for men and women (2020 to 2022)
This indicator shows overall life expectancy at birth in each London borough.
Overall life expectancy is consistently higher for women than for men across all London boroughs (2020-2022). The highest life expectancy for women is in Kensington and Chelsea (86.3 years), and in Richmond upon Thames for men (82.4).
The lowest life expectancy for both men and women is in Barking and Dagenham - 76.3 years and 80.4 years respectively.
Healthy life expectancy
Healthy life expectancy is the number of years a person can expect to live in good health rather than with a disability or in poor health.
Although women have a higher life expectancy than men in every borough, in some boroughs men have a longer healthy life expectancy. For example, in Tower Hamlets a man can expect to live 65.3 years in good health, compared to 57.8 years for a woman.
Albeit rec…
Births and deaths in London (2010-2020)
Each year, more people are born in London than die. Just under 116,000 babies were born in 2020 and nearly 59,000 died. Although births continued to decrease somewhat, they were at a broadly similar level in 2020 to 2019, whereas deaths show a substantial increase presumably due to the COVID-19 pandemic with a 10,000 increase on the previous year when around 49,000 people died. So, in 2020, the net natural population change was an increase of 57,000 whereas in 2019 it was 71,000.
The number of births in London has fallen slightly from the peak of 134,000 following a mini baby boom in years running up to 2012. Newham and Tower Hamlets were the boroughs with the highest levels of net births in 2020, with 3,800 and 3,086 respectively.