Buckingham is mostly home-owning families in their middle years, with comfortable incomes and good health. About two-thirds own their home. The typical resident is in their early forties. Four in ten have a degree. The town has its own university, yet students hardly show up in the census.
All the population figures here come from the 2021 census, which counted 14,296 people in Buckingham. About 66% of households owned their home, about 18% rented privately and about 13% rented from a council or housing association. Most people buy here and stay long enough to put up shelves.
The median age is 41, and about 24% of residents are between 25 and 44. That is a middle-aged town, though not an old one. The newer estates are full of school-age children, and the grammar school has a lot to do with that.
The Office for National Statistics models typical household income at about £70,000 a year before tax, averaged across the area for the financial year to March 2023. Gross income always sounds bigger than what reaches the bank account, but it is enough to cover a family mortgage on a four-bedroom house with something left over.
About 23% of households are couples with children and about 11% are lone parents. About 27% are one person living alone, and about 12% are pensioners living alone, who are part of that 27%. A quarter of households live alone in a town where most homes have three bedrooms or more, so a fair number of those bedrooms sit empty most of the year.
About 41% of residents have a degree-level qualification, about 11% have no qualifications and about 2% are full-time students. The University of Buckingham is in the town, but its students barely register in the census. Buckingham has a university, and its age profile is set by the families anyway.
At the census, about 87% of residents described their health as good or very good. Buckinghamshire as a whole does better than England on preventable deaths and on smoking, with about 8% of adults across the county still smoking. Those two are county figures measured against the England average, and they don't describe Buckingham on its own.
Buckingham's population is one of its strengths. It is mostly families who own their homes, earn well and stay healthy. Anyone looking for a young, student-heavy town should look somewhere else.