Colerne is mostly young families who chose a hilltop over a high street. Two-thirds own their homes. The typical resident is under forty. About a third of households are couples with children. It's less a retirement village than a place busy with school runs.
Every population figure here comes from the 2021 Census, which counted 2,415 people in 897 households. About 66% of households own their home and 26% rent privately, with a further 8% in social housing. Owner-occupation dominates, but a quarter renting privately is enough to keep the village from turning into a closed shop of long-term owners. Some of those renters will be the buyers of a few years' time, checking whether the wind and the lanes suit them before committing.
The median age is 38, and 28% of residents are aged 25 to 44. That's the age of mortgages, nurseries and arguments about whose turn it is to drive. Anyone expecting a village of retired couples comparing hanging baskets will find more scooters than walking sticks.
The Office for National Statistics models typical gross household income for the area at around £68,000 a year, before tax, for the financial year to March 2023. It's a modelled figure for a year that's already gone, not a current payslip, but it describes households with two decent incomes rather than one stretched one.
About 32% of households are couples with dependent children and 9% are lone-parent households. Single-person households make up 20%, and 11% of households are a pensioner living alone, a group that sits within the single-person share rather than on top of it. Families set the tone, but they aren't the whole village.
About 41% of residents hold a degree-level qualification and 11% have no formal qualifications. Full-time students are about 1%, which fits a village with no college and a bus timetable nobody would build a lecture schedule around. The mix leans towards the professional, with a solid minority who got where they are without a certificate.
In the census, about 89% of residents described their health as good or very good, and 3% as bad or very bad. At Wiltshire council level, the rate of deaths from preventable causes is better than the England figure and smoking is similar to England. Those two measures describe the whole local authority, not Colerne on its own.
Colerne suits settled families with good incomes, and it is heavier on professionals than a quick drive-through would suggest. Its residents are mostly settled, working and busy.