Marlow Bottom is lived in by people who arrived with equity and stayed. Nine in ten own their home. Half the adults hold a degree. People in their late twenties and thirties are thin on the ground. This is where the property ladder ends, with a bungalow at the top.
According to the 2021 census, which is the source for every population figure here, about 90% of the village's 1,429 households own their home. About 6% rent privately and about 3% rent from a social landlord. A tenant in Marlow Bottom is rare enough that the neighbours might take them for a house-sitter.
The median resident is 49, and only about 14% of people are aged 25 to 44. The age group most likely to be buying a first home is the one the valley holds least of, and the price of a house here is the reason.
The Office for National Statistics models average household income for the area at about £81,000 a year, before tax, for the financial year to March 2023. That is a large salary, and for plenty of households here it goes on servicing an even larger mortgage.
About 30% of households are couples with dependent children and about 5% are lone parents. About 21% of households are one person living alone, and most of those, about 14% of all households, are pensioners. Put together, the village is part family, part long retirement, and the two meet on the school run and at the doctor's.
About 51% of adults hold a degree, about 10% have no formal qualifications, and full-time students make up about 2% of residents. The mix leans heavily towards graduates, and a resident without a degree is in the minority on most streets.
About 90% of residents describe their health as good or very good, and about 2% as bad or very bad. Across Buckinghamshire as a whole, deaths from preventable causes run at a rate better than the England average, and about 8% of adults smoke, also better than England. Those county figures cover far more than this valley, but they point the same way.
Few English villages are as comfortable as Marlow Bottom: owners, graduates, good health and high incomes on almost every street. The only group in short supply is people starting out.