Brixton is mostly young working adults in rented flats. About a quarter of households own their home. Nearly half rent from a social landlord. The typical resident is in their early thirties, and more than half the adults have a degree. People here are young, mostly working and mostly renting.
About 23% of Brixton's households own their home, about 28% rent privately and about 45% rent from a council or housing association. Social housing is the largest of the three, and that shapes Brixton as much as anything else here. Private renters are the most visible group and the smallest of the three.
The 2021 Census, the source for all the population figures on this page, puts the median age of Brixton's 54,471 residents at about 32, and about 43% are aged 25 to 44. Only about 3% are full-time students, so the young people here are mostly working.
The Office for National Statistics models average household income in Brixton at about £71,800 before tax for the financial year to March 2023, and about £50,600 after tax and housing costs. The pre-tax figure is the one that gets quoted, and the after-tax one is what pays the rent. Both are averages across very different households in the same streets.
Brixton has 23,283 households, and about 33% of them are one person living alone. About 6% of households are a single pensioner, and they are counted within that one-person figure. Couples with dependent children make up about 8% of households and lone parents about 16%. For an area with good primary schools, there are relatively few two-parent families with children.
About 54% of adults hold a degree, about 14% have no formal qualifications and about 3% are full-time students. Graduates and people with no qualifications often live in the same blocks.
About 86% of residents describe their health as good or very good, and about 4% as bad or very bad. Across Lambeth as a whole, preventable deaths and smoking rates are both similar to the England average. Those are borough-wide figures, and they don't describe anyone's particular street.
Brixton's population is middling on the measures here. It is young, well educated and working, and it has more than its share of households where money and space are tight.