Cranfield is mostly young, well-qualified homeowners with good incomes. About seven in ten own their home. The typical resident is in their early thirties. Nearly half have a degree. If "village" makes you think of retirees, Cranfield's census returns will surprise you.
At the 2021 census, which is the source of every population figure on this page, about 70% of Cranfield households owned their home. About 14% rented privately and about 11% rented from a council or housing association. With ownership that high, private renting is a small market, and anyone hoping to rent first and buy later should expect very few listings.
The median age is 33, very young for a village. About 31% of residents are aged 25 to 44, the age when people are building careers and having children, and when big mortgages are taken out. Cranfield is full of people at that stage.
The Office for National Statistics models Cranfield's typical household income at about £73,000 a year before tax for the financial year to March 2023, averaged across the wider statistical area. That is a gross figure from more than three years ago. Tax comes off it, and the mortgage is paid from what remains, so it's comfortable money without being lavish.
Couples with children make up about 26% of households, and about 10% are lone-parent families. About 20% of households are one person living alone, and within that group about 9% of all households are a single pensioner. That is a lot of family homes, with a smaller share of people living alone than villages usually have.
About 46% of residents hold a degree-level qualification, and about 10% have no qualifications at all. Full-time students make up only about 5% of residents, few for a village with a university. The university's influence shows up much more clearly in the degree figure than in the student count.
At the 2021 census about 88% of residents described their health as good or very good. Central Bedfordshire as a whole does better than England on deaths from preventable causes, and its smoking rate is similar to England's. Both are council-wide figures, set by the whole district and not by Cranfield alone.
Of Cranfield's 7,288 residents, 741 live in communal establishments, not private households. Communal establishments include halls of residence, staff accommodation and care homes, and the area has one care home. That makes Cranfield a village with an institution attached. Those 741 people count towards the population and the age profile, but not towards the household figures above, which describe only people living in ordinary homes. A housing estate and a campus share one census return here, and the totals blend the two.
Overall, Cranfield's population is young, well qualified, well paid and mostly owning its homes. It is an above-average community, and its residents are earning money far more than they are spending a pension.