Herne Bay is lived in by people who have finished moving house. About seven in ten own their homes. The typical resident is close to fifty. One household in three is a single person. People here arrived on purpose and intend to stay.
All the population figures here come from the 2021 Census. About 69% of households own their home and about 21% rent privately, with the remaining 9% or so in social housing. Buyers outnumber landlords' tenants by a distance, and the "for sale" boards go up far more often than the "to let" ones.
The median age is 49, and about 20% of residents are aged 25 to 44. The town has long been a retirement destination, and the retirement complexes along the seafront are the proof. Anyone under forty moving in will find the average neighbour has already done the kitchen and the conservatory and is now working on the garden.
Household income averaged about £51,000 before tax in the financial year to March 2023, a gross figure modelled by the Office for National Statistics for the town's neighbourhoods. That's income from several years ago rather than today's pay packets, and it's comfortable rather than flash. The money in this town is mostly bricks and mortar.
About 35% of households are one person living alone, and about 18% are a single pensioner living alone, which is part of that 35%, not in addition to it. Couples with dependent children make up about 15% of households and lone parents about 11%. It's the sort of town where the young family on the street tends to be a talking point, and the bungalow next door usually belongs to someone who has lived there longer than the family's children have been alive.
About 25% of adults hold a degree-level qualification and about 22% have no formal qualifications. Full-time students make up about 2% of residents, so the student-let economy of the nearby city stops well short of the seafront. The mix is a working and retired town, not a university one, and there's no nightlife pushing the case for the other kind.
Who lives in Herne Bay is ordinary in both directions. The town is settled, owner-occupied, middle-aged and middle-income, with nothing at either extreme to pull the average around.