Northwood is home to settled, well-qualified households in the middle of life, most of whom own the place they live in. Six in ten own their home. The typical resident is in their early forties. More than half the adults have a degree. Students barely register at all.
About 63% of Northwood households own their home, and about 26% rent privately, with another 11% in social housing. Ownership is the default here, and renting is what people do while they wait to join it or after they have sold up.
The median resident is 43, and about 27% of residents are aged 25 to 44. That is a town with plenty of people in their working prime, and an age profile old enough to have opinions about the neighbours' extension and young enough to still be paying for its own.
Typical household income in Northwood was about £81,000 before tax for the financial year to March 2023, an Office for National Statistics model averaged across the area. That is gross income, so the tax comes off first and the mortgage lender gets paid from what remains, and at Northwood's prices the lender's share is the bigger worry.
Every population figure on this page comes from Census 2021. About 27% of households are one person living alone, and about 13% are a pensioner living alone, a group already counted inside that 27%. Couples with dependent children make up about 22% of households and lone parents about 8%. More Northwood households hold one person than a couple with children, which is not quite what all those four-bedroom houses were built for.
Qualifications are high. About 55% of adults hold a degree or equivalent, about 12% have no formal qualifications, and only about 1% of residents are full-time students. The London School of Theology is in town, but its students make almost no mark on the census.
About 86% of Northwood residents described their health as good or very good in the census. Across Hillingdon, preventable deaths run at a rate better than England's, and the borough's smoking rate, about 11%, is similar to the national picture. Those two are borough figures set against England, and they describe the council area as a whole.
The people of Northwood are one of its real strengths: educated, healthy, mostly owner-occupiers and solidly in work. Anyone joining them is buying into a well-established neighbourhood, and paying the going rate for the privilege.