Mostly young families with mortgages, and they're doing fine. About seven in ten households own their home. The typical resident is in their late thirties. Nearly a third of households are couples with children. It's what "settled" looks like, one people carrier at a time.
All the population figures here come from the 2021 Census. About 69% of households own their home, outright or with a mortgage, and about 14% rent privately, with most of the rest in social housing. Landlords are a minority, and the buy-to-let crowd never took the place over. People buy here and stay long enough to learn which neighbour borrows the ladder and never brings it back.
The median age is 37, and about 32% of residents are between 25 and 44. That's the age group with a mortgage, a toddler and an opinion about the nearest primary school. It isn't a retirement village and it isn't a student town. It's the middle decades of life, with a car seat in the back.
Household income averaged about £68,500 before tax in the financial year to March 2023, as modelled by the Office for National Statistics for the area. It's gross, it's modelled, and it's a few years old, so treat it as the shape of the place rather than a current payslip. What it describes is households that can afford a mortgage here without needing a lottery win or a generous parent.
The household make-up confirms the family-suburb reading. About 30% of households are couples with children and about 12% are lone parents. About 23% are one person living alone, and within that, about 7% of all households are a pensioner on their own. Put those together and school runs and weekend football fixtures dominate the calendar, while the single-person households get the quiet mornings once the traffic has cleared.
Qualifications are mixed. About 37% of residents hold a degree-level qualification, about 10% have none, and around 1% are full-time students. That's a working population of graduates and non-graduates in roughly the proportions an estate full of commuters and tradespeople would give you, without a university campus to tilt the numbers. The students mostly aren't here because nobody builds student digs next to a leisure centre and a bypass.
Of 6,749 residents, 139 live in communal settings such as care homes rather than private households, which is too few to change how any of the other shares should be read.
The people who live here are one of Broadbridge Heath's real strengths: owner-occupiers in the middle of family life, comfortably off and staying put. Buyers who want quiet streets and neighbours who stick around will find both. Anyone who wants a party scene can drive into Horsham.