Chalford is mostly owners in middle age and beyond who are comfortably off and well educated. Eight in ten own their home. The typical resident is around fifty. Household incomes are healthy, and degrees are common. People in their twenties and thirties are the age group in shortest supply.
About 81% of Chalford's households own their home, about 13% rent privately and about 5% rent from a social landlord. With that few private lets, anyone hoping to rent while they get to know the valley will mostly be watching the same handful of listings.
The median resident is about 50 years old, and only about 18% of residents are aged 25 to 44. The people who make up most first-time buyers are a small group here, and the valley's age profile comes mainly from the owners who are already in it.
Modelled gross household income across the area averaged about £64,900 before tax in the financial year to March 2023, and about £47,400 after tax for the same period. The gross figure is the one that gets quoted, and the after-tax figure is what households actually spend.
About 20% of households are couples with dependent children and about 7% are lone-parent households. Families with school-age children are present, but they are a minority of households.
Most of these population figures come from the 2021 census. About 26% of households are one person living alone, and within that, about 14% of all households are a single pensioner. Single pensioners are part of the solo-living figure, not added to it. With a typical age near fifty, a lot of the people living alone are people whose children grew up and moved out.
About 44% of adults hold a degree-level qualification, about 11% have no formal qualifications, and only about 2% are full-time students. The village where James Bradley, the third Astronomer Royal, died in 1762 now has close to half its adults educated to degree level, and only a handful still in full-time education.
Chalford's population is one of its strengths. It is a well-off, well-educated village of owners, mostly settled into the second half of life, with families and young adults a smaller presence than the size of the houses might suggest.