Mostly people who got in and have no intention of leaving. Seven in ten own their home. Half the adults have a degree. The typical resident is in their early forties. It is a town of mid-career families who read the school reports before the estate agent's details.
The 2021 Census counted 26,478 people in 10,382 households, and every figure on this page comes from it unless marked otherwise. About 70% of households own their home, outright or with a mortgage. About 17% rent privately and about 12% rent from a council or housing association. Ownership is the default setting here, and the rented minority is small enough that a landlord with a vacancy does not wait long.
The median age is 41, and about 24% of residents are aged 25 to 44. That is a town weighted to the middle of life rather than either end: old enough to have bought, young enough to still be paying for it.
Modelled gross household income, before tax, averaged about £70,000 across the area in the financial year to March 2023. That figure is several years old and describes a household, not a salary, so in many homes it is two incomes doing the work of one mortgage.
The household make-up leans to families. About 28% of households are couples with dependent children and about 9% are lone parents. About 27% are one person living alone, and within that group about 13% of all households are a single pensioner on their own. The family home with a school run is the most common shape, and the pensioner who stayed on after the children left is the next most familiar.
Education is the defining trait. About 49% of adults hold a degree or equivalent, and about 11% have no formal qualifications. Only about 2% of residents are full-time students, so this is not a university town and the degrees were earned elsewhere, then brought here along with the furniture. The mix skews heavily towards the professional, and the local conversation at the school gate tends to include the word "restructure" more often than most.
Only 818 people live in communal settings such as care homes or boarding accommodation, rather than private households. That is too small to shift any of the shares above, so the household picture holds as it stands.
The community is one of Reigate's real strengths: settled, well-qualified and firmly rooted, made up of people who arrived on purpose and have made a point of staying.