Ageing Well B&NES has published their 2026 State of Ageing Report, bringing together publicly available data and insight from more than 1,300 older residents across Bath and North East Somerset.

The report highlights key issues affecting later life locally, including transport, health access, housing, social connection and digital inclusion. It also sets out practical recommendations to help partners across health, research, local government and the voluntary sector support ageing well across the area and aligns with the World Health Organisation (WHO)’s Age-friendly Cities and Communities Framework.

As part of the University’s engagement with the Ageing Well B&NES group, the institution has committed a pledge in response to one of the key recommendations outlined in the report: the need to develop a larger repository of open access data relating to local ageing. Specifically, the report notes that this requires the collection and publication of unaggregated age data, avoiding the common use of broad categorisations, e.g., “55-70” or “65+”.  

At the launch of the report on 31 March at The Guildhall in Bath, Assistant Professor Dr James Fletcher announced the University’s pledge and said:

The partnership between the University’s Healthy Later Living Network and Ageing Well B&NES is a great way for the institution to help improve the lives of local people and we’re pleased to commit to our pledge today.

The University of Bath plays an important civic role as a local knowledge broker and data custodian and has hence pledged to increase the availability of unaggregated age data from research projects. Work is already starting with relevant Centres and the University Library to help realise this effort, but the cooperation of individual staff members will also be integral to supporting our pledge. Where practicable, ensuring that uncategorised age data is collected and made freely available via the University’s Library, is a crucial way in which researchers can help to support the Ageing Well programme’s work to make B&NES a better place to age.  For further details, please contact the University’s Research Data team, research-data@bath.ac.uk,

Organisations of all sizes and sectors are invited to pledge actions in response to the recommendations. To find out more about the report or to pledge contact: ageingwell@ageukbanes.co.uk and visit www.ageukbanes.co.uk.