Mostly graduates in early middle age who own the house and would rather not discuss what they paid for it. Seven in ten households own their home. More than half the adults hold a degree. Households bring in comfortable money before tax. Godalming is less a melting pot than a settled room of people who arrived in the same career bracket and stayed.
About 70% of households own their home outright or with a mortgage, while about 19% rent privately and about 10% rent from a council or housing association. The private-rented slice is small enough that renters are the exception on most streets. Owning is the default setting, and the housing prices make sure it stays that way.
Every population figure on this page comes from the 2021 Census. Across roughly 11,900 residents, the median age is 42, and about 27% of residents fall in the 25 to 44 bracket. That is a town of people at the stage where the conversation turns from pubs to pensions without anyone noticing the switch.
Modelled household income, before tax, averaged around £75,600 in the financial year to March 2023. That is a gross figure for a year already behind us, not what anyone is earning today. It describes a population that is comfortable rather than lavish, and one that has chosen to spend the difference on square footage and school catchments.
Household make-up is broader than the family-town stereotype. About 28% of households are one person living alone, and within that group about 12% of all households are a single pensioner. Couples with children make up about 25% of households, and lone parents about 8%. The school run is a large part of local life, but so is the quiet house at the end of the close where one person has lived for decades and knows exactly who parks where.
Education runs high. About 54% of adults hold a degree-level qualification, about 10% have no formal qualifications, and only about 2% of residents are full-time students. The graduates are here for the long haul rather than the three-year stay; the university crowd lives somewhere else and visits for Sunday lunch.
The population living in communal settings, such as care homes, is small at 184 people, not enough to shift any of the shares above.
This is one of Godalming's stronger suits: an educated, established, owner-occupying population with steady money and a long-term stake in keeping the town as it is. Newcomers who fit that description will find the welcome warm, and the shared assumptions come along with it.