Harrow is home to young working professionals, most of them in flats and about half of them renting. The typical resident is in their mid-thirties. Half have a degree. Households earn well, and most say they are in good health. It is a town of people in the middle of building something, whether that is a career, a family or a deposit.
About 48% of households own their home, and about 40% rent privately, with roughly another 10% in social housing. With owners and renters close to level, Harrow is as much a waiting room for the housing ladder as a place on it, and the private landlord is the town's second-biggest householder.
The median age is about 35, and about 36% of residents are between 25 and 44. Those are the years of first jobs in the City, first flats near the station and first children, and Harrow has a lot of all three.
Typical household income was modelled at about £76,800 before tax for the financial year to March 2023, an area average across the town. Gross is the important word, because after tax the same households were modelled at about £52,800, and it is the smaller number that has to cover a London mortgage or a London rent.
All the population figures on this page come from the 2021 Census. About 27% of households are one person living alone, and within that, about 8% are a pensioner on their own. Couples with children make up about 22% of households and lone parents about 10%. Families and single people live side by side, often in the same block. Fewer than one household in ten is an older person living alone, which is a small share for a London suburb and a sign of how much of the stock turns over to younger buyers and tenants.
About 51% of adults hold a degree, about 15% have no formal qualifications, and only about 3% are full-time students. Harrow is educated without being a student town. It has plenty of graduates and not many people still studying, which suits the landlords who prefer a twelve-month tenancy to an academic year.
About 87% of residents describe their health as good or very good, and only about 4% as bad or very bad. Harrow Council's area does better than England as a whole on deaths from preventable causes, and the borough's smoking rate, at about 9% of adults, is similar to England's. In 2018 a national statistics survey called the borough the happiest in London, and in 2019 an estate agent's survey called it the least friendly. People who are healthy, busy and commuting can manage both at once.
Harrow's population is better off than average, with a well-qualified, mostly working-age mix whose main complaint is the cost of getting from renting to owning.