Paddington is mostly young renters who live alone or with one other person, earn well, and rarely stay long enough to own anything. Only about a quarter of households own their home. The typical resident is in their mid-thirties. Most have a degree. Families with children are a small minority.
Tenure decides most things here. About 27% of households own their home, and about 50% rent from a private landlord, with another 22% in social housing. That makes Paddington a district of tenants, where the person with the keys and the person with the deeds are rarely the same.
The Census puts the median resident at 35, and about 39% of the population are aged 25 to 44. Paddington is full of people with careers in full swing, and it thins out at the age when people start wanting a garden.
Income is high on paper. The Office for National Statistics models average household income here at about £78,000 before tax for the financial year to March 2023, a gross figure that is now several years old. In Paddington that money mostly goes on rent, so a high earner here can be living in a one-bedroom flat.
The 2021 Census, which is the source for the population figures on this page, shows how the households are made up. About 44% are one person living alone, and about 9% of all households are a pensioner on their own, a group that is part of that 44% and not extra to it. Couples with dependent children make up about 11% of households, and lone parents about 9%. The typical household here is one person and a fridge, and families are a small share of the doors on any staircase.
The Census also found that about 60% of residents hold a degree, while about 12% have no formal qualifications, so the area contains both ends of the scale, often on neighbouring streets. Full-time students are only about 3%, which is low for central London.
On health, about 86% of residents described their health as good or very good in 2021. Public health figures for Westminster as a whole show a rate of deaths from preventable causes better than the England average, and a smoking rate of about 14%, which is similar to England's. Both describe the borough rather than these streets, and the borough includes some of the richest postcodes in the country.
About 1,581 residents live in communal establishments, such as hostels, care homes and the like, outside private households. Paddington has hotels and hostels on Sussex Gardens, a hospital and two care homes, so a share of the people counted here live in a room and not a home of their own, and that is part of why the single-person and rented figures run so high.
Overall, Paddington's population is middling on balance. It is young, well qualified and well paid, but most people rent, live alone and move on before they put down roots.