Great Missenden is mostly home to well-off owner-occupiers in middle age and older, and a lot of them bought some time ago. Eight in ten households own their home. Nearly half the adults have a degree. Students are hard to find. So are people in their late twenties and thirties, the age at which most people buy their first home.
About 79% of households own their home. About 13% rent privately and about 8% rent from a council or housing association. Private rentals make up only about one household in eight, so a renter has a short list to choose from.
The median age is about 49, and only about 18% of residents are aged 25 to 44. That is the age at which most people are trying to buy their first home, and prices in Great Missenden are well beyond most first-time buyers.
The Office for National Statistics models typical household income for the area at about £79,000 before tax for the financial year to March 2023. That is a modelled average across the surrounding area, not anyone's actual payslip. It is a comfortable income, and enough to pay a Great Missenden mortgage if the mortgage was taken out several years ago.
The figures on this page come from the 2021 Census. About 24% of households are one person living alone, and about 14% of all households are pensioners living alone. Couples with dependent children make up about 23% of households and lone parents about 7%. Great Missenden is best known for Roald Dahl, a children's author, yet fewer than a quarter of its households have children living at home.
About 48% of residents aged 16 and over hold a degree or higher, about 10% have no qualifications, and about 1% are full-time students. There is no university nearby, so almost none of the population is students.
About 88% of residents describe their health as good or very good. Across Buckinghamshire, deaths from preventable causes are below the rate for England, and the smoking rate, about 8%, is better than England's too. Those are figures for the whole county, not for Great Missenden itself.
Great Missenden's residents are well off, well educated and healthy, and most of them own their homes. That makes for a comfortable, stable place to live, though few young adults can afford to move in.