Ewhurst is lived in by settled, comfortable homeowners in the back half of their careers, plus a residential school's worth of teenagers who wreck the averages. Nearly eight in ten households own their home. Barely one in seven residents is aged 25 to 44. Four in ten adults hold a degree. The young professional couple is the rarest creature in the parish, and the badger isn't close.
About 78% of households own their home. Private renters make up about 12% and social renters about 8%. Ownership is the default setting, and renting is something people do briefly on the way to buying or on the way out.
The median age is 48, but that figure needs a warning label. Of the 2,724 people counted, 363 live in communal establishments rather than private households, and the age profile carries a sharp spike of teenagers that points to a residential school or similar institution. Take them out and the settled village runs older than 48 suggests. Only about 15% of residents are aged 25 to 44, which is the census's polite way of saying the first-time buyers went somewhere they could afford.
Households here earned a modelled income of about £72,000 a year before tax in the financial year to March 2023. That's a gross figure averaged across the area, not a payslip, and not a current number. It describes a village of professionals and people who were professionals until recently, living on the proceeds.
All the population figures here come from the 2021 Census. About 25% of households are one person living alone, and within that, about 14% are single pensioners. Couples with dependent children make up about 20%, and lone parents about 7%. The picture is of houses bought for families, now often lived in by the parents after the children left, who have no intention of downsizing just because the bedrooms are empty.
About 41% of residents hold a degree-level qualification, about 10% have no qualifications, and about 2% are full-time students. That's a mix weighted towards people who went to university and then spent a long time working before landing here. The student figure is small despite the teenagers, because most of them are still at school rather than counted as full-time students.
The communal population matters enough to repeat once: with 363 people living outside private households, any figure that counts teenagers, and the median age above all, should be read as describing the village plus an institution. The 2,361 people in private households are the settled village, and they're older, established and in no hurry to leave.
The community is one of Ewhurst's real strengths: prosperous, settled and staying put. Getting into it takes money, and getting old in it seems to be most people's long-term plan.