Carterton is mostly young families who own their homes, plus a sizeable military population. About six in ten households own their home. Residents are in their mid-thirties on average, younger than much of rural Oxfordshire. About a quarter of households are couples with children. A noticeable number of residents live in communal accommodation, which is what you get in a town built around an air base.
About 59% of Carterton households own their home, about 29% rent privately and about 11% rent from a council or housing association. Private renting is high for a town this size, and the landlords' tenants include service families who arrive on postings and leave when they end.
The median age is about 36, and about 33% of residents are aged 25 to 44. That is a working-age, school-run town: in Carterton, fewer people have retired than have just got a mortgage.
The Office for National Statistics models median household income across the Carterton area at about £66,600 before tax for the financial year to March 2023. That is an average across several neighbourhoods. After tax the figure is about £46,400, which gives a clearer idea of what households actually have to spend.
All the household figures here come from the 2021 Census. About 27% of households were couples with dependent children and about 9% were lone parents. About 23% were people living alone, including about 9% who were pensioners living alone. Carterton's houses are full of children and car seats much more often than they are quiet.
On qualifications, about 28% of adults had a degree or equivalent and about 12% had no formal qualifications. Only about 2% of residents were in full-time study as adults, so there are almost no students. Many people here went straight into a trade or the forces, and both show up in the figures.
About 1,258 people, out of a population of about 18,000, live in communal accommodation: service quarters, care homes and similar. That is a large share for a town, and it means the household figures above describe only the people living in private homes. Carterton has been taking in people who used to wear a uniform since its first settlers, many of them retired soldiers, arrived before the air base existed. The base just added the ones still serving.
The population is one of Carterton's strengths. It is young, mostly in work and mostly owner-occupying, and the military population keeps it from going stale.