Dulwich is mostly graduates in their late thirties and forties, on good incomes, who have moved on from flat-sharing. About half own their home. Close to a quarter rent from a social landlord. Students barely register. The Dulwich Village image of the place covers only part of the people who actually live here.
All the population figures here come from the 2021 census. About 53% of households own their home, about 23% rent privately and about 23% rent from a council or housing association. Social housing such as the Peabody Estate on Rosendale Road, which is a conservation area in its own right, counts towards that last share. Dulwich's reputation is built on the village. The census counts everyone.
The typical resident is 39, and about 30% of people are aged 25 to 44. Only about 2% are full-time students. People move here when they have a household to set up, not when they're still sharing a kitchen rota.
The Office for National Statistics models the average household income at about £85,000 before tax for the financial year to March 2023. After tax, the same households take home about £58,000. That second figure is the one a mortgage lender will be working from. In a place where houses sell in seven figures, it doesn't go as far as the gross figure suggests.
About 22% of households are couples with dependent children, and about 15% are lone-parent families. About 26% are one person living alone, and that includes about 10% of all households who are pensioners living alone. Dulwich is often described as a family neighbourhood. In the census, families with children are only one group among several.
About 61% of adults have a degree, about 11% have no formal qualifications, and full-time students make up about 2% of residents. Those two shares sitting side by side are part of why the area is more mixed than its reputation suggests.
About 88% of residents describe their own health as good or very good. Across Southwark, about 7% of adults smoke, similar to England as a whole, and the borough's death rate from preventable causes is also similar to the England average. Both of those are Southwark-wide measures, so they say nothing in particular about Dulwich's own streets.
Dulwich is a well-educated, well-off and fairly settled place with more variety than its reputation suggests. The village crowd and the people on the estates are both part of who lives here.