Bromley is mostly comfortably-off households in their thirties and forties, with a substantial minority of renters. Six in ten own their home. The typical resident is just under forty. Four in ten adults have a degree. Almost one household in five rents from a council or housing association. Bromley is comfortable, and the posh parts of the borough are mostly elsewhere.
The 2021 census, which supplies every population figure here, found about 60% of households owned their home. About 21% rent privately and 18% rent social housing from a council or housing association. Large, expensive houses, terraces and council flats all count towards the same averages, so a town that looks uniformly suburban from the train is more mixed than it seems.
The median age is about 39, and about 29% of residents are between 25 and 44. That is the age band of mortgages, nursery fees and season tickets to Victoria, and it is a big share of the town.
Average household income in Bromley was modelled at about £83,000 before tax for the financial year to March 2023, and about £54,000 after tax for the same year. The tax and national insurance come out of that gap, and the after-tax figure is what a mortgage on a £460,000 terrace has to be paid from.
Of Bromley's households, about 28% are one person living alone, and about 11% are a pensioner living alone, which is part of that 28% and not extra to it. Couples with dependent children make up about 22% of households and lone parents about 15%. The family home with two parents and children inside is common, but far from the only kind of household.
About 43% of adults hold a degree and about 15% have no formal qualifications. Full-time students make up only about 2% of residents, despite Bromley College of Further and Higher Education being in the town. Most students commute in for the day and do not live here.
About 85% of residents described their health as good or very good at the census. For the London Borough of Bromley as a whole, the public health benchmarks put both adult smoking, at about 7%, and preventable deaths better than the England average. Those two are borough-wide measures and cover far more than the town itself.
Bromley's population is average for the area: comfortable and well qualified, with a big share of families, and broad enough that the averages describe the town only roughly. It is suburban London in the ordinary sense.