Laleham is mostly homeowners in their fifties and older, in family houses, comfortably off. Nearly nine in ten households own their home. The typical resident is about fifty. A quarter of households are one person living alone. Few people come here to rent, and few people leave.
At the 2021 Census, the source for every population figure here, about 86% of Laleham's households owned their home. About 9% rented privately and about 5% rented from a council or housing association. That leaves very little room for anyone wanting to try the village out before buying. A tenant in Laleham is the exception on almost every street.
The median resident is 50 years old. People aged 25 to 44 make up about 19% of the population, the age when most people are buying a first home and starting a family. The village is short of that age group, and it isn't hard to see why when the cheaper end of the housing market barely exists here. Most people seem to arrive once they can afford a semi.
The Office for National Statistics models typical household income in and around Laleham at about £66,000 before tax for the year to March 2023, averaged across a patch a little wider than the village. That figure is now a few years old and comes before tax and the mortgage. Thomas Arnold, headmaster and father of the poet Matthew Arnold, travelled widely and still chose to bring his family here. Laleham has been attracting comfortable professionals with families since well before the semis went up.
Lone parents head about 8% of households, a modest share for a village built mostly of family houses.
The rest of the household mix shows the age profile. About 25% of households are one person living alone, and about 15% are a pensioner living alone. Those 15% are part of the 25%. Couples with children make up about 19%. The family homes are as likely to belong to empty-nesters as to young families, and the bedrooms outlast the children who used them.
About 34% of adults have a degree, and about 15% have no formal qualifications. Full-time students are about 1% of residents. Laleham has very few students, so any noise at night isn't coming from shared student houses.
Of the 3,435 people living here, 62 live in communal settings such as care homes, and the village has two care homes. That's too few to change any of the shares above.
Laleham is an above-average place in who lives here. It's comfortable and mostly home-owning, though young people trying to get their first foot on the ladder are thin on the ground.