Introduction Hearing impairment is very common at older age (more than half of the European population suffer from hearing loss by age 80 years) and has considerable social, health and economic implications. Age-related hearing loss being currently incurable, there is a need to identify modifiable risk factors. Origins of hearing impairment are multifactorial and a shared etiology with cardiovascular disease has been suggested in older adults. Systemic inflammation is a hallmark of ageing, and has been consistently associated with cardiovascular outcomes. The relationship between inflammation and hearing at older age, however, has been little studied. Our aim was to investigate the association between several markers of inflammation, namely C-reactive protein (CRP), fibrinogen and white blood cell count (WBCC) and objectively measured hearing impairment. Methods The sample consist of participants in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, free of hearing impairment and aged 50 to 93 at baseline (wave 4, 2008–2009). They provided serum levels of CRP, fibrinogen and WBCC during the nurse visit at wave 4, as well as during the follow-up nurse visit at wave 6 (2012/2013). We excluded CRP values > 20 (n = 134 at wave 4 and n = 112 at wave 6) because they are likely to reflect acute infection. For each of the three markers, we averaged the two measurements to gain precision and better reflect chronic inflammation. Hearing was self-reported at baseline (5-item scale from excellent to poor) and participants (n = 752) who rated their hearing acuity as poor or fair were excluded. At wave 7 (2014/2015), hearing acuity was objectively measured with a simple handheld device which produces a fixed series of six pure tones (55, 35 and 20 dB HL at 1 kHz and 75, 55, and 35 dB HL at 3 kHz). Hearing impairment was defined as hearing fewer than six tones in the best hearing ear. Logistic regression models were fitted to estimate the relationship (odds ratios [OR] and 95% confidence intervals CI) between inflammatory markers and hearing impairment. Models were adjusted for age, sex, smoking, body mass index, physical activity, education and cognitive function. CRP and WBCC were log-transformed to improve normality Restricted cubic splines were used to test nonlinearity by using the likelihood ratio test, comparing nested models with a linear or linear and cubic spline terms. Results Among 3627 participants aged 62 years (inter quartile range 58–69) at baseline (2008), 1149 (31.7%) people presented hearing impairment in 2014. In models adjusted for age and sex only, all three biomarkers were positively and linearly associated with odds of hearing impairment: CRP OR (doubling of CRP) = 1.04; 1.02, 1.07; fibrinogen OR (increase 1 g/L fibrinogen) = 1.25; 1.07, 1.46; WBCC OR (doubling of WBCC) = 1.25; 1.14, 1.36. After introduction of confounders including CVD risk factors (BMI, physical activity, smoking) in the model, CRP (OR = 1.02; 0.99, 1.05) and fibrinogen (1.08; 0.91, 1.27) became non-significant. WBCC, however, remained significantly associated with hearing impairment in the fully adjusted model with an OR of 1.15; 1.05, 1.27 for each doubling of WBCC. When all three inflammatory markers were included in the model, only WBCC was associated with hearing impairment (OR = 1.13; 1.02, 1.25). Conclusions In a nationally representative cohort of English older adults, chronic inflammation was associated with incident hearing impairment, in particular measured by elevated white blood cell counts. These results, if replicated, offer potential for monitoring and eventually prevent hearing impairment.