Heathfield is lived in by people who have already done the moving and are not planning to do it again. Three in four households own their home. The typical resident is nearly fifty. Couples with children at home are outnumbered by people living alone. It is a town of people who have finished climbing the housing ladder, not people still stood at the bottom of it.
About 76% of households own their home. About 16% rent privately and about 7% rent from a council or housing association. The rental market here is a side door, not the main entrance, and letting agents in town mostly manage other people's stays between purchases.
The typical Heathfield resident is 49 years old, and about 21% of residents are aged 25 to 44. The people who move for a job every few years show up here less than in most towns. The ones who arrive tend to be past the career-hopping stage and done with it.
Modelled household income, before tax, averaged about £54,500 across the town in the financial year to March 2023. That is a gross figure for that year, not a pay packet for today, and it spans everything from working couples to pensioners on fixed incomes.
The census counted about 8,900 residents in 3,951 households, and every population figure on this page comes from the 2021 Census. Heathfield is a town of households, not hostels or halls: nearly everyone lives in a private home.
About 32% of households are one person living alone, and about 17% of all households are a single pensioner, a group that falls within the living-alone share, not on top of it. Couples with dependent children account for about 18%, and lone parents about 8%. Buyers imagining a town of school runs and trampolines will find the trampolines outnumbered by quiet houses where one person does the crossword.
About 30% of adults hold a degree-level qualification, and about 15% have no formal qualifications. Full-time students make up about 2% of residents, which is what a town without a university or a railway station tends to look like. Heathfield has graduates, apprentices and people who left school and went straight to work, all on the same street, and nobody's qualification shows on the doorbell.
The people are one of Heathfield's strengths. It is a settled, largely home-owning town, comfortable without being flashy, where neighbours tend to stay long enough to learn your name.