Ebbsfleet Valley is a town of thirty-somethings with degrees, mortgages and young children. More than half the residents are between 25 and 44. More than half have a degree. Pensioners living alone barely register. This is what a garden city looks like before anyone in it has had time to grow old.
All the population figures here come from the 2021 census, which counted 3,914 people in 1,528 households. About 63% of households own their home, about 17% rent privately and about 7% rent from a social landlord. Ownership leads by a wide margin, though a private rental sector of that size means plenty of the neighbours signed a tenancy agreement and not a mortgage deed.
The typical resident is 31, and about 53% of people are aged between 25 and 44. That is an unusually narrow band for half a town to fall into, and it shows in the school run, the playgrounds and the number of pushchairs.
The Office for National Statistics models typical household income here at about £75,000 a year before tax, for the financial year to March 2023. That is a comfortable figure, and much of it goes on the mortgages that came with the new houses.
About 37% of households are couples with children, and about 8% are lone parents. Those two groups together shape the valley's daily rhythm, built around school runs and childcare.
About 23% of households are one person living alone, and only about 1% are pensioners living alone, who are counted within that group. Lone parents are far more common here than older people on their own, which is unusual for anywhere in Kent. Most of the people living alone here are young, between jobs or relationships, not widowed.
About 54% of residents hold a degree, about 6% have no qualifications and about 2% are full-time students. The students are few because there is little here for them, and the graduates are many because they are the ones who could afford the deposits. People were knapping flint beside this river long before anyone needed a degree to afford a house next to it.
The people of Ebbsfleet Valley make a better-than-average neighbourhood. It is young, well qualified and comfortably off, and it is still too new to have many residents who are older than the houses.