Letchworth is a mixed town with a broad middle. Owners are the majority, and social tenants are a large minority. Nearly six in ten households own their home. About three in ten rent from a social landlord. The typical resident is in their early forties. The garden city was built to house all of them in one town, and it still does.
The 2021 census, the source for every population figure here, counted 34,325 people in 14,737 households. About 58% of households own their home, about 30% rent from a council or housing association and about 12% rent privately. The private rented sector is small, and social housing makes up nearly a third of homes. The town's first residents came for the promise of a better life, and social landlords are still a large part of how that promise works for many households.
The median resident is 42, and people aged 25 to 44 make up about 25% of the population. The town is neither young nor retired, and most of its residents are in the middle of their working and mortgage years.
The Office for National Statistics models average household income across Letchworth at about £63,000 before tax for the financial year to March 2023. It is a modelled figure averaged over five larger statistical areas, and it is three years old. Because it is an average, it covers a town where nearly a third of households are social tenants and a fair number are pensioners living alone. Few households in Letchworth will have an income close to the figure.
About 11% of households are lone parents with children, and about 20% are couples with children.
About 32% of households are one person living alone, and within that group about 15% of all households are a single pensioner. Couples with children make up about 20%, and lone-parent families about 11%. The family house is still the town's main housing type, but a third of the front doors open onto a household of one.
About 37% of residents aged 16 and over hold a degree-level qualification, about 16% have no qualifications and about 2% are full-time students. With no university here, students are a small group, and most graduates are working adults who moved in or grew up and stayed. James Lovelock, who came up with the Gaia theory, is on the town's list of notable people, along with Laurence Olivier, so the degree holders have some famous names to live up to.
Letchworth's population is average for the area, a broad cross-section with owners in the majority, many social tenants and a typical age in the early forties. It is a working town of mixed means, as Howard meant it to be.