Moreton-in-Marsh is home to about 5,000 people, mostly homeowners in their middle years, with more social housing than the stone frontages suggest. About six in ten own their home. The typical resident is in their mid-forties. One household in five rents from a council or housing association. It is a working market town with a pensioner population, and its residents are not all retirees.
The 2021 Census, the source for every population figure on this page, counts 5,015 residents in 2,353 households. About 62% of households own their home, about 15% rent privately and about 20% rent from a council or housing association. That last figure is higher than most Cotswold postcards would suggest. The town has more housing association tenants than holiday-let landlords would ever put on a brochure.
The median resident is 46, and about 25% of people are aged 25 to 44. That makes Moreton older than a commuter suburb and younger than its reputation, with enough people in the middle of their careers to keep the shops, schools and GP practices busy.
The Office for National Statistics models gross household income, before tax, at about £52,000 for the financial year to March 2023, averaged across the area. After tax and other deductions, the same modelling puts net household income at about £40,500. That is comfortable without being rich, and well short of what you need to buy one of the detached houses on the edge of town without a large deposit from a previous sale.
About 34% of households are one person living alone, and about 17% are pensioners living alone, a figure already counted within that third. Couples with dependent children also make up about 17%, so Moreton has as many pensioners living alone as it has two-parent families. Lone-parent households make up about 8%. On any given street, that tends to mean a family next door to a widow.
About 36% of adults hold a degree, about 17% have no formal qualifications and about 1% are full-time students. The young people mostly leave for university and come back, if at all, once they can afford a house here. Meanwhile the old wartime airfield east of town trains senior fire officers from all over the country, so the town hosts many of the country's most experienced firefighters at any given time without counting them as residents.
The population is one of Moreton-in-Marsh's strengths. It is a comfortably-off, mixed and mostly middle-aged town, with owners, social tenants, families and pensioners living on the same streets.