Richmond is home to well-paid, well-educated professionals, most of them somewhere in the middle of life. Just over half own their home. The typical resident is in their early forties. Seven in ten adults have a degree. The town works, earns and mostly stays healthy, and the people who own its biggest houses inherited the habit from kings.
About 25,400 people live in Richmond, Kew and North Sheen, in roughly 11,100 households, and every population figure on this page comes from the 2021 Census. About 56% of households own their home, around 31% rent privately and about 13% rent from a council or housing association. Private renting at that level keeps a steady stream of newcomers moving through the flats, while the owners stay put in the houses.
The median resident is 41, and about 32% of people are aged between 25 and 44. That puts the centre of gravity firmly in the years of careers, mortgages and nursery waiting lists.
The Office for National Statistics models typical household income across the area at about £105,000 a year before tax for the financial year to March 2023, averaged across its neighbourhoods. The town is the British base of eBay, PayPal and the chocolate maker Lindt, which between them cover selling things, paying for them and consoling yourself afterwards.
About 32% of households are one person living alone, and within that group about 12% of all households are a pensioner on their own. Couples with dependent children make up about 22% of households and lone parents about 8%. The rest are couples without children at home, sharers and mixed households, the flat-dwelling majority of a town where half the homes are flats.
About 69% of adults hold a degree or equivalent, and about 7% have no formal qualifications. Full-time students make up about 1% of residents, so Richmond has no student quarter and no autumn surge of borrowed vans. The degree share describes a town full of people who already finished their studies some time ago and moved here on the proceeds.
About 90% of residents describe their health as good or very good, and about 3% as bad or very bad. For Richmond upon Thames as a whole, deaths from preventable causes run better than the England rate, and the borough's smoking rate of about 9% is similar to England's. Richmond Park and the Old Deer Park are a short walk away, and the joggers using them are not hard to find.
Richmond's population is one of its real strengths: comfortable, healthy and educated, with more singles and renters in the mix than the big houses suggest. It suits people who want neighbours with steady jobs and the time to use the park.