Settled homeowners in the middle of life, mostly. About seven in ten own their home. Around four in ten hold a degree. A quarter of households are couples raising children. It isn't a young crowd or an old one, just the mortgage-paying middle.
Ownership sets the tone. About 72% of households own their home, outright or with a mortgage. Only about 11% rent privately, and about 16% rent from a council or housing association, so social tenants outnumber private renters. That surprises anyone who pictured a Berkshire village full of buy-to-let flats. There are hardly any flats to let here, and landlords mostly haven't bothered.
The typical resident is 43, and about 23% of people are aged 25 to 44. That's older than a commuter town full of first jobs and younger than a retirement village. People arrive with children or a career already under way, and then stay for a very long time.
Money isn't tight. The Office for National Statistics modelled gross household income, before tax, at about £71,700 a year for the financial year to March 2023, averaged across the neighbourhoods here. That describes household income three years ago, not what anyone earns today, and the figure is before tax. It still describes a place where two decent salaries are normal, not remarkable.
Every population figure from here comes from the 2021 census. About 26% of households are couples with dependent children and about 11% are lone parents. About 24% are one person living alone, and within that group about 12% of all households are a pensioner living alone. The pensioners are a share of the single-person households, not an extra group, and they're a reminder that the family estates of one generation become the quiet cul-de-sacs of the next.
Qualifications cover the full range. About 40% of adults hold a degree or equivalent, about 12% have no formal qualifications, and only about 2% are full-time students. There's no university crowd and no student lets to speak of. Anyone hoping for a late-opening coffee shop full of dissertation writers will be disappointed.
Health reads well. About 86% of residents describe their health as good or very good. Across West Berkshire as a whole, deaths from preventable causes are better than the England average and smoking is similar to it, at about 8% of adults. Those are council-area figures measured against England, not a verdict on this neighbourhood alone.
The people here are one of Burghfield Common's strengths: settled, comfortable, qualified and mostly healthy, with enough social housing to keep it from becoming a gated suburb. A buyer arriving at forty with a family will look around the school gate and recognise everyone.