Kilburn is lived in by educated renters in their thirties, many of them living alone. Seven in ten households rent. The typical resident is in their mid-thirties. More than half hold a degree. In Kilburn, the person living in a flat is usually not the person who owns it.
Only about 31% of households own their home, according to the 2021 census, which is the source for every population figure on this page. About 40% rent privately and 28% rent from a social landlord. Kilburn's landlords are mostly not neighbours, and its neighbours mostly have a landlord.
The median age is 35, and about 40% of residents are between 25 and 44. That is the age band that has a career, a partner and possibly a plan, and is still paying rent. The 1714 spa that tried to pull visitors away from Hampstead's well has nothing on the attraction Kilburn holds for people of this age.
Household income is high on paper. The Office for National Statistics modelled gross household income, before tax, at about £73,000 for the financial year to March 2023, averaged across the area. It is a modelled average across very different streets, and it describes 2023, not today. In a place where most of that income goes on rent, a big number before tax still leaves little after it.
Households are mostly small. About 37% are one person living alone, and about 9% are a single pensioner living alone, a group already counted inside that 37%. Couples with dependent children make up about 15% of households and lone parents about 11%. More people here live alone than live as a couple raising children, which is what an area made up mostly of one- and two-bedroom flats tends to produce.
The qualification mix leans heavily toward degrees. About 59% of residents hold one, about 13% have no formal qualifications, and only about 3% are full-time students. Kilburn has already graduated and moved into a flat share near the Overground, and the students live somewhere cheaper.
Health is good on the whole. About 86% of residents rate their own health as good or very good, and under 5% as bad or very bad. Across Camden, the borough's rate of preventable deaths is better than the England average and its smoking rate is similar to England's. Those borough figures describe Camden as a whole, and the young, mostly working population here goes some way to explaining the 86%.
Kilburn's population is a mixed picture rather than a strong one: highly educated, healthy and earning well, but mostly renting and mostly passing through.