Braintree is mostly working households who own their homes, with a typical resident about forty. About six in ten households own. Around one in five is a couple raising children. Very few residents are students. On the whole, it is a town of people in the middle of their working lives.
At the 2021 census, Braintree had about 45,600 residents in 19,040 households, and every population figure on this page comes from that census unless stated otherwise. About 63% of households owned their home. The rest rented, split almost exactly in half: about 18% from a private landlord and 18% from a council or housing association. So the town's rented homes come in equal parts from private landlords and social housing, alongside a large owning majority.
The median resident is 40, and about 27% of people are aged between 25 and 44. The local age profile is shaped by mortgages on three-bed semis more than by students or retirees.
The Office for National Statistics models typical household income across Braintree at about £59,000 a year before tax for the financial year to March 2023, averaged across the town's neighbourhoods. After tax it comes to about £42,000. That level of income pays for a semi and a car, and leaves less room for much else.
About 29% of households are one person living alone, and about 13% are a single pensioner, who are included in that 29%. Couples with children make up about 21% of households and lone parents about 11%. So more Braintree homes have one person in them than a couple raising children. The town is not only families with school runs, even though the housing is mostly family houses.
About 23% of residents aged sixteen and over hold a degree, about 20% have no formal qualifications, and about 2% are full-time students. Braintree College and Notley High School and Braintree Sixth Form both teach here, but at that share students hardly register in the town's population. The people who live here mostly left education some time ago and now work.
Braintree's population is ordinary in a useful way: it is mostly working, mostly owning, mostly around forty, and earns enough to get by without much to spare.