Mostly homeowners, mostly past fifty, and mostly well qualified. Three in four own their home. The typical resident is in their early fifties. Nearly half hold a degree. Young families are a minority. Mayfield isn't a village people start out in, it's one they arrive at.
Ownership is the norm. Census 2021 found about 76% of Mayfield's households owning their home, about 16% renting privately and about 7% in social housing. Every figure on this page comes from that census unless it says otherwise. With three quarters of the village owning, the rental market is a side door, and anyone hoping to rent first and buy later will find the door narrow.
The village skews older. The median age is 52, and only about 16% of residents are aged 25 to 44, the years when most people are buying first homes and filling school places. The prices keep most of that age group out, and the ones who do arrive tend to be at the upper end of it. Estate agents like to call this "an established community", which is one way of saying the average buyer brings a lot of equity.
Money is comfortable. The Office for National Statistics modelled average household income, before tax, at about £65,000 for the financial year to March 2023. That is a gross figure for households, many with more than one earner, and it describes three years ago, not today. It still goes some way to explaining how the village carries its house prices.
Households are split between the settled and the solo. About 30% of households are one person living alone, and within that about 20% of all households are pensioners living alone. Couples with dependent children make up about 18%, and lone parents about 6%. The single-pensioner share is part of the living-alone share, not in addition to it. The result is a village where a lot of big houses hold small households, and the bedrooms outnumber the people using them.
Qualifications run high. About 44% of residents aged 16 and over hold a degree-level qualification, about 10% have no formal qualifications, and about 2% are full-time students. Few students means few flat-shares, few young renters and a village that goes quiet early. The book group probably has a waiting list, though no record confirms it.
About 121 people live in communal settings rather than private households, such as care homes or boarding accommodation. That is a small share of the total, not enough to change the picture, but it does add a few residents to the count who never appear in the housing figures.
Mayfield is a settled, well-off, older village, and for buyers looking for that it is one of the steadier places in the district. Young families and first-time buyers are here, but they are the exception, and they will notice.