Colindale is mostly young working adults in rented flats, and fewer families stay long-term. Fewer than half of households own their home. The typical resident is in their mid-thirties. A third of households rent privately. Most people living here are in the early years of their careers.
The 2021 census, the source for every population figure on this page, counted 83,081 people in 29,185 households. About 43% of households own their home, about 35% rent privately and about 20% rent from a council or housing association. Colindale is a place people rent before they buy, and in the new blocks on Colindale Avenue a lot of neighbours are on short tenancies.
The median resident is 35, and about 36% of people are aged 25 to 44. Colindale is where people live in their late twenties and early thirties for the Tube, and many move on in their forties for a garden.
The Office for National Statistics models household income at about £63,000 before tax for the financial year to March 2023, averaged across the neighbourhoods that make up the area. That average covers both high-earning couples who own new-build flats and households renting from the council, so it describes very few of them exactly.
About 20% of households are couples with children, and about 13% are lone parents with children. Taken together, Colindale has a fair number of children, though fewer of them live in two-parent homes than the age profile might suggest.
About 25% of households are one person living alone, and about 7% of all households are a single pensioner, a group already counted within the one-person figure. Colindale has few elderly residents living alone. Most people living alone here are working-age renters.
About 42% of residents hold a degree, and about 20% have no formal qualifications at all. Only about 4% are full-time students. Graduates and people without qualifications live in the same postcodes here, often on the same estate, and any average across the two describes very few residents.
About 86% of residents described their health as good or very good at the census. Barnet is better than the England average on deaths from preventable causes, and its smoking rate, about 9%, is similar to England's. Those comparisons cover the whole borough, so they describe Barnet more than Colindale.
The people of Colindale are its weaker side: a young, mobile population that mostly rents and has not stayed long enough to settle. That will appeal to people moving in for a few years. It will appeal less to buyers who want neighbours who stay.