Clapham, Bedfordshire is mostly home-owning families, plus the people those families become once the children leave home. Three in four households own their home. The typical resident is in their early forties. Almost a third of households are one person living alone. The houses were built for families, and many of them now hold one or two people.
According to the 2021 Census, the source for every population figure on this page, about 75% of Clapham's households own their home, about 13% rent privately and about 11% rent from a social landlord. The village has 4,502 residents in 1,914 households. Private renting is a small part of the market, so anyone hoping to rent first and buy later will find few homes to choose from.
The median age is 43. About 23% of residents are aged 25 to 44, the age at which most people take on their first mortgage and fill the spare rooms. Clapham has people of that age, but they do not set the tone of the place.
The Office for National Statistics models gross household income, before tax, at about £64,000 for the financial year to March 2023, averaged across the wider area that includes Clapham. Gross income is the higher figure that people tend to quote, and net income is what actually pays the mortgage.
About 31% of households are one person living alone, and within that group about 17% of all households are a single pensioner. Couples with dependent children make up about 22% and lone parents about 11%. People living alone outnumber couples raising children. Most of the family houses here have outlasted the families they were built for.
About 32% of residents aged 16 and over hold a degree-level qualification, and about 17% have no qualifications at all. Full-time students account for about 2%. Bedford's students live in other parts of the town, and Clapham's young people tend to go away to study.
About 85% of residents describe their own health as good or very good. Across Bedford borough, the rate of deaths from preventable causes is similar to England's, and so is the smoking rate, at about 12% of adults. Those borough-level comparisons describe Bedford as a whole and do not single out this village.
The people of Clapham are middle of the road: mostly owners, middle-aged, reasonably well paid on paper, and older than the houses suggest.