Settled, middle-aged homeowners, mostly, with more of a mix behind them than the house prices suggest. Two in three households own their home. The typical resident is in their mid-forties. About one household in five rents from a social landlord. A third of adults have a degree. Comfortable, yes. Exclusive, no.
Every population figure on this page comes from the 2021 Census. About 65% of households own their home, outright or with a mortgage, about 15% rent privately and about 19% rent from a council or housing association. Social renting ahead of private renting is unusual in a town at these prices. It means the people who run the town's shops and care homes have often been able to stay in it, and the buy-to-let crowd hasn't taken over the terraces.
The median age is 45, the point at which most people start having opinions about hedges and which way the bins should face. About 24% of residents are between 25 and 44, the years when most people buy a first home and start a family. It is a town with a healthy middle and a steady older end, not a place a young crowd ever discovered.
Average household income, before tax, was about £68,000 in the financial year to March 2023, as modelled by the Office for National Statistics across the area. That is a gross figure a few years out of date, and pay has moved since. It describes households that manage comfortably without being flash about it: the sort who replace a car when it breaks, not when a newer model comes out.
The households themselves are varied. About 32% are one person living alone, and about 16% of all households are a single pensioner living alone, which is part of that same 32% and not an extra group. Couples with dependent children make up about 19%, and lone parents about 10%. Alton isn't all school runs, and it isn't a retirement town either. It is a town where the family semi and the retirement flat are a few doors apart.
On qualifications, about 36% of adults hold a degree or equivalent, and about 15% have no formal qualifications. The mix is broad, from professional to trade, which is what you would expect in a town with an insurance office and four industrial estates. Full-time students are about 2% of residents. Alton educates its teenagers and then waves them off to university somewhere with a student union.
About 140 people live in communal settings such as care homes rather than private households. That is too few to change how the other figures read.
Alton's residents are one of its real strengths: settled, comfortably off and more varied than the prices suggest. Most people who move here stay, and the figures above show why.