Four Marks belongs to settled people in their forties who own the place outright or are on the way to it. Eight in ten households own their home. The typical resident is in their late forties. Four in ten have a degree. Renters are a small minority. This is a village of people who've stopped looking at property listings, apart from checking what next door sold for.
Owner-occupation is the default. About 80% of households own their home, and private renters make up about 9%, with social renters another 9% or so. There's no student or young-renter scene here, and the letting agents' window displays reflect it.
The median age is 47, and only about 20% of residents are aged 25 to 44, the age group that usually drives first-time buying and young families moving in. The village skews older than that bracket. The people who arrived with toddlers are now paying for driving lessons.
Money isn't the pressure here. The Office for National Statistics modelled typical household income at about £76,600 before tax for the financial year to March 2023. That's a gross, modelled figure for that year, not a payslip for today. Either way, it describes a village where the monthly budget has some slack in it.
Every population figure from here on comes from the 2021 Census. Of Four Marks's 2,946 households, about 24% are couples with dependent children and about 8% are lone parents. About 19% are one person living alone, and that group includes the roughly 10% of households made up of a single pensioner. The mix is family households with a steady share of older residents living alone in houses sized for the families that have since left. The bungalow stock exists for a reason.
On qualifications, about 42% of residents hold a degree or equivalent, about 11% have no formal qualifications, and about 2% are full-time students. It's a professional, mid-career population whose university years are well behind it. The pub quiz here is harder than it looks.
Who lives here is one of Four Marks's real strengths: stable, comfortable, overwhelmingly owner-occupied, with families and retirees living next door to each other. Newcomers get a warm welcome, followed by a long look at the extension plans.