Chertsey is lived in mostly by owner-occupiers in their working middle years, with a sizeable share of renters alongside them. About two-thirds own their home. The typical resident is 40. A third hold a degree. It is a town of mortgages, school runs and people living on their own, which covers most of the people who keep a town running.
At the 2021 census, the source for every population figure on this page, about 64% of Chertsey's households owned their home, about 19% rented privately and just over 16% rented from a social landlord. That puts a council or housing association tenancy, a private let and a mortgaged semi within a few streets of each other, which is how a town of 16,106 people ends up with something for most budgets.
The median age in Chertsey is 40, and about 30% of residents are aged 25 to 44. Full-time students make up about 1% of residents, even though Royal Holloway College is close by, so its undergraduates are evidently living somewhere else.
The Office for National Statistics models average household income in Chertsey at about £66,500 a year before tax for the financial year to March 2023, which comes down to about £46,800 after tax. The first figure is the one that gets quoted, and the second is the one that pays the mortgage on a semi.
About 30% of Chertsey's households are one person living alone, and about 11% are a pensioner living alone, a group counted within that 30%. Couples with dependent children make up about 22% of households and lone parents about 11%. Chertsey is less dominated by families with children than its two secondary schools might suggest, and a lot of its front doors open onto a single occupant.
About 35% of Chertsey's residents aged 16 and over hold a degree-level qualification, and about 17% have no formal qualifications. That is a broad mix, from the graduates working in the town's offices to people who left school and went straight into work, and both groups live on the same streets.
About 182 people in Chertsey live in communal establishments such as care homes and hospital accommodation, a small enough number that it barely moves the household figures.
The people of Chertsey make up an ordinary, middling mix: mostly owners in their working years, with enough renters, singles and pensioners that no one type runs the town.