Becontree is home to young working families, and most of them rent. The typical resident is in their mid-thirties. Fewer than half of households own their home. One family in five is headed by a single parent. The council built the estate for young families a century ago, and young families still make up much of it.
The 2021 Census counted 44,802 people in 15,603 households, and every population figure on this page comes from that census. About 43% of households own their home. About 33% rent from the council or a housing association and about 23% rent privately. The London County Council built Becontree as a landlord, and more than half the homes are still rented.
The median age is 34, and about 30% of residents are between 25 and 44. That is the age group with children, mortgages and a commute, and Becontree has a great many of them.
The Office for National Statistics models typical household income at about £63,000 before tax for the financial year to March 2023, averaged across the area. Spread across a household that may have two earners, children and rent going out, that does not leave much spare, even before the tax comes off.
Unemployment stands at about 5%. Most adults here are working and do not have a great deal left over.
About 25% of households are one person living alone, and about 9% are a pensioner living alone, a group counted within that 25%. About 22% are couples with children and about 21% are lone parents. The estate is built around the three-bedroom terrace, and it is mostly families living in them.
About 32% of adults have a degree and about 24% have no qualifications. Full-time students make up about 4%. Graduates and people with no qualifications live in the same terraces, and their children go to the same schools.
Most people report being healthy, with about 83% describing their health as good or very good and about 5% as bad or very bad. The borough-wide picture is less positive. In Barking and Dagenham, preventable deaths are worse than the England average, while smoking, at about 15% of adults across the borough, is similar to England. Those two measures cover the whole borough and are not specific to Becontree's streets.
On the measures used to judge a neighbourhood, Becontree comes out poorly. It is young, hard-working and mostly renting, and its incomes, qualifications and health figures are still behind where its residents would want them to be.