Islington is mostly young adults who rent, and the homeowner people picture when they hear the name is in the minority. Only about a quarter of households own their home. Four in ten rent from the council or a housing association. The typical resident is in their early thirties, and most have a degree. Townhouse owners are part of it, but most people in Islington live in rented flats.
At the 2021 census, which is the source for the population figures here, about 24% of Islington's households owned their home. About 32% rented privately and about 41% rented from the council or a housing association. Social renting is the most common tenure here, ahead of both private renting and owning, and on many streets an owner-occupied terrace stands opposite an estate. Anyone buying a flat in a block that is partly council-owned should ask the managing agent about planned major works, because bills for a new roof or new windows are shared between the leaseholders, and the council decides the timetable.
The typical resident is about 33, and about 43% of residents are aged between 25 and 44. That is a large share of people in the years when they are building careers, sharing flats and wondering whether to stay. For most of them, the prices make the decision.
The Office for National Statistics models a median household income of about £72,700 a year before tax across these neighbourhoods, for the financial year to March 2023. It is an average of areas that range from Canonbury's squares to the large estates around King's Cross and Pentonville, so it describes almost no household exactly. Gross pay always looks better than what reaches the bank account, especially in a borough where rent takes so much of it.
About 36% of households are one person living alone, and about 7% are a pensioner living alone, a group already counted within the first. Couples with dependent children make up about 11% of households and lone parents about 14%. There are more single parents than two-parent families with children in Islington. For most people here, home means a flat for one, and the family house is rarer than the famous terraces suggest.
About 58% of residents aged 16 and over hold a degree, about 14% have no qualifications and only about 3% are full-time students. Very few people here are studying. The ones with degrees have finished them and, on the census figures, have stayed. Graduates and people with no qualifications live side by side, sometimes in the same block.
About 85% of residents described their health as good or very good at the census. Across the London Borough of Islington, the rate of deaths from preventable causes is worse than England's, while the borough's smoking rate, about 9%, is similar to the national figure. The borough-wide death rate takes in every part of Islington, from the estates to the squares, and the young population here does not show up much in a statistic about early deaths.
Islington is a mixed place, about average overall on these measures. It is young, well educated and mostly renting. The townhouse owners are a minority, and the people sharing flats are not.