Mostly settled, older households, and a more mixed town than the grand gates suggest. About half own their home. More than a quarter rent from a social landlord. The typical resident is nearly fifty. Anyone expecting a town made up entirely of country money has been reading the wrong brochures.
According to the 2021 Census, which is the source for every population figure on this page, about 52% of Petworth's households own their home. About 20% rent privately and about 27% rent from a social landlord. That social-rent share is the fact visitors from the park gates rarely guess. The town has always housed the people who worked around the big house as well as the people who owned it, and the tenure mix still shows it.
The median resident is 49. About 21% of residents are aged 25 to 44, the age band that usually fills the buggies and the commuter car parks. Petworth isn't a young town. It's the kind of place where people arrive already knowing what they want from a Saturday, and it isn't a club night.
Household income, modelled before tax, came to about £58,000 in the financial year to March 2023. That figure describes the town three years ago, not today, and it's an average across a mixed area, so it hides a wide spread. The price of a detached house tells you where the top of that spread sits. The tenure split tells you about the bottom.
Single-person households make up about 36% of homes. People living alone above pension age, part of that same group rather than an addition to it, account for about 23% of households. Couples with dependent children make up about 16%, and lone-parent households about 10%. The single-pensioner figure means a lot of homes here have one resident, and a lot of front doors that don't open for hours at a time. It's worth knowing if you're choosing between a quiet street and a lively one.
On qualifications, about 29% of residents hold a degree, about 21% have no formal qualifications, and about 1% are full-time students. Those shares sit side by side on the same streets. The tenure split and the housing stock suggest that's how the town has always been, rather than something new.
About 47 people live in communal settings such as care homes rather than private households. That's too few to change how the other shares read.
Petworth is an ordinary cross-section in a grand setting: older than average, mixed on income and tenure, and much less exclusive than its postcard view.