Settled homeowners in their fifties, mostly. Seven in ten own their home. The typical resident is about fifty. Only about one household in five is a couple with children. Ash is where people move once they have stopped moving.
The 2021 Census is the source for every population figure here, and all of them cover the Ash area and its surrounding villages. About 73% of households own their home, around 15% rent privately and about 12% rent from a council or housing association. This is a place for buying. Renters are here, but they are outnumbered, and the private rental market is small enough that a landlord with a decent three-bed can afford to be choosy.
The median age is about 50. People aged 25 to 44 make up about 20% of residents, and that is the age when most people are too busy with nurseries and mortgages to worry about which village they live in. The older end of Ash had time to choose it. The younger end mostly inherited the school run.
Office for National Statistics modelling puts median household income in the area at about £59,000 before tax. That figure is for the financial year to March 2023, not today, and it is gross, before tax and deductions. It describes a household that is comfortable without being rich, one that can manage a bill for fixing a thatched roof without enjoying it.
About 24% of households are one person living alone, and about 13% of households are a pensioner living alone, a group that sits inside the single-person figure. Couples with children make up about 19% of households and lone parents about 8%. So the family home here is common as a building but less common as a household. Plenty of four-bedroom houses are now home to two people and a set of spare rooms kept for grandchildren at Christmas.
About 36% of residents hold a degree-level qualification, about 15% have no formal qualifications, and about 1% are full-time students. That is a mixed village, with retired professionals living alongside people who have worked the land and the trades all their lives. Nobody is heading off to lectures. Students in Ash are mostly the ones back for the holidays.
Ash's population is middling rather than remarkable: settled, mostly owner-occupiers, and older than average, with the young families outnumbered.