Cranleigh is home to people who arrived with some equity and stayed for the quiet. Seven in ten households own their home. The typical resident is in their mid-forties. About three in ten households are one person living alone. This is a village people settle into, not one they pass through.
The 2021 census counted 11,497 residents in 4,804 households, and every population figure on this page comes from it. About 71% of households own their home, about 13% rent privately and about 14% rent from a social landlord. Private renting is the smallest of the three. Landlords haven't found Cranleigh, or they have and the prices put them off.
The median age is 46, and only about 20% of residents are aged 25 to 44. The years of young-professional flat shares and first jobs are mostly lived somewhere else, and people come back to Cranleigh with a mortgage offer and children who need a school. The house prices shape the age profile before anyone else gets a say.
Household income is high. The Office for National Statistics models median household income at about £73,000 a year before tax for the financial year to March 2023, which comes to about £52,000 after tax. That describes three years ago, not today. It's the income of a village where the second car is standard and the kitchen extension is the usual next step.
About 29% of households are one person living alone, and about 16% of households are a single pensioner, which is a subset of that group. Couples with dependent children make up about 20% of households, and lone parents about 8%. Families are the visible face of Cranleigh on a school morning, but at home the picture is more mixed: plenty of people living alone, many of them past working age, in houses built for bigger households.
About 39% of residents aged 16 and over hold a degree-level qualification, and about 13% have no formal qualifications. Full-time students make up about 1%, which fits a village with no college or university and very little student housing. It's a mix of professional careers and people who got on with working life without a certificate.
Out of the 11,497 residents, 591 live in communal settings such as care homes or boarding accommodation rather than private households. That's enough to note, but it doesn't change how the other shares read.
The people are one of Cranleigh's real strengths: settled, comfortable, well-qualified and mostly staying put. If you want neighbours who will still be there in ten years, this is the right village.