Loughton is mostly homeowners in their middle years, with good incomes and a lot of families. About two-thirds own their home. The typical resident is around 40. Social renting is more common here than private renting, which is unusual for a commuter town near London.
All the population figures here come from the 2021 census, which counted about 33,300 people in Loughton across about 13,460 households. About 66% of households own their home, about 18% rent from a council or housing association and about 16% rent privately. London County Council started building the Debden estate in 1945 to rehouse Londoners, and that is why social renting outnumbers private renting here. The landlord with a buy-to-let is the smaller part of Loughton's rental market.
The median resident is about 40, and about 28% of residents are aged 25 to 44. Loughton draws people at the age when they still use the Central line to get to work but no longer need it to get home at closing time.
The Office for National Statistics modelled median household income in Loughton at about £66,000 before tax for the financial year to March 2023. After tax, the same modelling puts it at about £49,000. That is a comfortable income that is now a few years out of date. Any mortgage comes out of the after-tax figure.
Families are a large part of the town, but they are not most of it. Couples with dependent children make up about 23% of households, and lone parents about 12%.
Living alone is just as common. About 27% of households are one person, and about 12% of all households are a pensioner living alone, a group already counted inside that 27%. On any given road, the houses with families in them sit next to people who have the whole house to themselves.
About 35% of residents aged 16 and over hold a degree-level qualification, and about 17% have no formal qualifications. Full-time students make up about 1%, which is what you would expect from a town with no university and a Tube line to several.
Loughton's population is one of its strengths. It is a town of owners and families on good incomes, with enough social housing that the whole town never became a single kind of street.