Carlyon Bay is lived in by people who have already done the difficult part of their lives. Nearly nine in ten own their homes. The median resident is 63. One household in four is a pensioner living on their own. Almost nobody is here at the start of anything, and the place has stopped pretending otherwise.
Around 87% of households own their home. About 12% rent privately and under 1% rent socially, which makes renting here a rounding error with a sea view.
The median age is 63, and only about 13% of residents fall in the 25 to 44 band, the stretch of life when people usually buy a first house and fill up a primary school. That single figure explains more about this place than any other on the page.
Modelled household income came to about £49,000 gross, before tax, in the financial year to March 2023, or roughly £37,000 once tax is taken off. Both describe that year rather than this one. Income before tax is also a blunt way to measure a place where a quarter of households are one pensioner and the earning was done somewhere else, some time ago.
Family households are thin on the ground. About 13% of households are a couple with children and about 4% are a lone parent, so the school-age population here is a minority interest rather than the organising principle of the neighbourhood.
Every population figure on this page comes from the 2021 census. About 31% of households are a single person living alone, and about 24% are a pensioner living alone, the second sitting inside the first rather than alongside it. Roughly a third of the front doors here open onto a household of one, which is worth knowing before anyone assumes a coastal address means a busy street.
On qualifications, about 36% hold a degree or equivalent, about 16% hold none, and full-time students account for about 1%. It is a mixed profile rather than a uniform one. It also predicts nothing else on this page, whatever the people who like drawing lines between education figures and everything else would prefer.
Health reads well. About 80% of residents describe their health as good or very good, and about 5% report bad or very bad health. Two broader measures are published for Cornwall as a whole rather than for this area: smoking, at about 12% of adults, comes out similar to England, and preventable mortality also comes out similar to England. Those belong to the county rather than to this bay, and they are benchmarked nationally rather than locally.
Taken together the population reads as comfortable and firmly settled: high ownership, healthy self-reports and next to no churn. What the picture is missing is people in the middle of their working lives, which suits some buyers precisely and quietly rules the place out for others.