Working families who own their house and intend to stay in it. Nearly two-thirds of homes are owned. The typical resident is in their late thirties. Household incomes sit comfortably above the struggling line. This is not a retirement village with a boatyard attached, whatever the old postcards would have you believe.
The Census 2021, the source for every population figure here, counted 8,581 people in 3,590 households. About 64% of households own their home, about 13% rent privately and about 20% rent from a council or housing association. The private rental market is small, which suits the owners and frustrates anyone hoping to try the village out before committing.
The median age is 39, and about 30% of residents are aged 25 to 44. That is a village in the middle of its working life: mortgages, school runs, and a garage full of things bought for hobbies that were going to happen at weekends.
Modelled household income, gross and before tax, averaged about £65,000 across the area in the financial year to March 2023. That figure is a few years old and describes the area average, not any particular street. It points to households with a decent salary or two coming in, and fits the driveways.
The household mix leans towards families without being dominated by them. About 22% of households are couples with dependent children and about 11% are lone parents. About 26% are one-person households, and within that, about 10% of all households are a pensioner living alone. The quieter end of the village is real; it is just not the whole village.
On qualifications, about 33% of residents hold a degree-level qualification and about 14% hold none. Full-time students make up about 2%, which confirms what the house prices already suggested: nobody here is sharing a bathroom with four strangers to be near a lecture hall. The mix is broad, a spread of trades, offices and professions rather than a single type.
Only 15 people live in communal settings such as care homes, too few to change how any of the other figures should be read.
Bursledon's population is middling in the most literal sense: settled, working, reasonably well paid and firmly in the middle of life. It is neither a commuter dormitory for high earners nor a place in difficulty, and the people who buy in tend to look exactly like the people already there.