A working-coast town of around 14,000 people across roughly 5,900 households, mostly settled rather than transient, mostly here for the long term. The median age is 41. About six in ten own their home. The median household income is around £52,000. This is not a commuter dormitory, a retirement coast, or a transient port-side rental market. It is its own population, holding its own ground.
Tenure splits about six in ten owned and about four in ten rented. Within that rental share, around 24 in 100 households rent privately, and about 15 in 100 rent from a social landlord. The owner-occupier majority gives the town a stable core, the kind that owns a small terrace or a post-war semi and stays there for decades. The private rental share is roughly what you would find in any coastal town and brings the usual mix of younger working tenants and longer-term renters. The social rental share is a touch above the typical pattern, which is what you would expect in a working-coast town that has historically housed dock workers, port workers, and the trades that follow them.
The age profile lands middle of the road. The median resident is 41, which sits inside the working years rather than the retirement window. About one in four residents falls in the prime working-age band of 25 to 44, which is the demographic group that buys houses, has children, and works full-time. This is not a town that has aged into being a quiet retirement coast. It is also not a town that has been gentrified into a young-professional postcode. It is, by the numbers, a town where people of working age live their working lives.
Household income comes in at around £52,000, which reflects the labour market of a working port rather than a commuter belt. The wages are honest. The cost of living is sized to the wages. The two come close to meeting each other most of the time, which is what makes the place workable for the people who live here.
Household composition is unfussy. About three in ten households are single-person, with around 15 in 100 being single pensioners. Around 18 in 100 are couples with children, and about 14 in 100 are lone-parent households. The mix together describes a town where people are getting on with daily life rather than performing it for an audience.
Newhaven is who you would expect a small working port town to be, and that is the point. It is not the demographic profile of a place that gets written up in weekend property supplements. It is the demographic profile of a place where the people who live there are the ones the place was built for.