Settled homeowners, mostly past the stage of flat-shares and first jobs. Four in five households own their home. The typical resident is in their late forties. Renters are scarce. Herne is a village of people who already had the argument about where to live and closed it.
The 2021 Census, the source for every population figure here, counted 7,837 people in 3,182 households. About 82% of households own their home, outright or with a mortgage, about 13% rent privately and about 3% rent from a council or housing association. In a place where the landlord is usually the person living there, the "to let" board is a rare sight and a talking point when it appears.
The median resident is 47, and only about 21% of people fall in the 25 to 44 age band that fills most first-time buyer statistics. That does not make Herne a retirement village. It makes it a place people move to once the career has settled and the priorities have shifted from nightlife to loft space.
Household income was modelled at about £60,300 a year, gross and before tax, for the financial year to March 2023, so it describes a few years ago rather than today. That is a comfortable figure for a village, and it goes with the owner-occupied streets and the two-car driveways. It does not make Herne rich; it makes Herne sure of itself.
Families are here in real numbers. About 21% of households are couples with dependent children and about 9% are lone-parent households. The primary school run exists; it is simply outnumbered by the dog walk.
About 25% of households are one person living alone, and about 14% are pensioners living alone, a group that sits inside that 25% rather than on top of it. Those single-pensioner households are the quiet backbone of the bungalow streets, and anyone buying next to one should expect the neighbour to know the history of their house better than the survey does.
About 26% of residents hold a degree-level qualification, about 18% have no formal qualifications, and about 2% are full-time students. Herne is a broad mix of backgrounds rather than a university overspill or a commuter-belt of consultants. Anyone hoping for a student house party next door has picked the wrong village by some distance.
About 94 people live in communal settings such as care homes rather than private households, too few to shift any of the shares above.
Herne's population is middle of the road in the most literal sense: comfortable, settled and mostly past the age of surprises, with enough families to keep the schools busy and too few renters to change the tone.