Middleton Cheney is home to owner-occupiers in middle age who arrived, settled and stayed. Three in four own their home. The typical resident is in their mid-forties. Couples with children and pensioners living alone each make up about a fifth of households or a little less. Renters are thin on the ground, and the people who move in mostly come to stay.
All the population figures here come from the 2021 Census unless stated otherwise. Middleton Cheney has 4,127 residents in 1,677 households. About 77% of households own their home, about 10% rent privately and about 12% rent from a social landlord. Social renters outnumber private ones, so the person renting next door is more likely to have a housing association tenancy than a buy-to-let landlord.
The median age is 46, and people aged 25 to 44 make up about 21% of residents. That leaves the village weighted towards people who have already done the moving and the job-hopping, and most of them are paying off a mortgage or have finished paying one.
The Office for National Statistics models typical household income for the area at around £61,700 before tax in the financial year to March 2023, an estimate covering a slightly wider patch than the village. That is a comfortable figure for a village, though it is before tax and before running cars for the 55% of households that have two or more.
Lone-parent households make up about 10% of the total, which is a reminder that the village is more than retired couples and young families on new estates.
About 25% of households are one person living alone, and about 15% are a pensioner living alone, a group within that quarter. Couples with dependent children account for about 23%. On most closes the household that throws a children's birthday party and the one that hasn't needed a babysitter in decades live next door to each other.
About 32% of residents aged 16 and over hold a degree-level qualification, about 16% have no formal qualifications, and about 3% are full-time students. That is a wider mix than the house prices might suggest, and the low student share fits a village with no college or university to keep anyone after sixth form.
About 85% of residents describe their health as good or very good. West Northamptonshire as a whole is similar to England on smoking, at about 9% of adults, and similar to England on preventable deaths, so the wider authority sits about where the country does on both.
The population is better off than the average: settled, mostly owner-occupying and healthy, with fewer young adults than many places. The village works well for people who have reached the staying-put stage of life, and noticeably less well for anyone hoping to rent their first flat.