Older, settled, and mostly holding the deeds. Around three-quarters own their homes. The typical resident is past sixty. Barely one household in ten is a couple with children. Anyone hoping to be the family that drags the average down should know they will be doing it alone for a while.
On tenure, 73% of households own their home outright or with a mortgage, 19% rent privately and 8% rent from a social landlord. That ownership level shapes the town more than any other single number: turnover is slow, houses come to market when somebody's circumstances change rather than when the market gets exciting, and the rental stock is small enough that finding a long let can take patience.
The median age is 61. Residents aged 25 to 44, the group most places treat as the engine room, make up 13% of the population. This is not a town in the middle of a young-family boom, and no amount of coastal marketing will make it one. What it is instead is a town where a large share of residents have time, and where the daytime population is the actual population rather than whoever stayed behind.
Household income sits at about £47,000 gross, before tax comes off, and that figure is modelled for the financial year to March 2023 rather than describing today. It also describes households rather than individuals, which in a town of couples who have finished paying the mortgage means something different from the same number in a commuter suburb.
The Census 2021, which is the source for every population figure on this page, puts 38% of households as one person living alone. Within that, 24% of all households are a pensioner living alone, a subset of the 38% rather than something to be added to it. Couples with children account for 10% of households and lone parents for 6%. More than a third of the front doors in this town open onto one person's life, which explains a great deal about why the shops shut early and why the walking groups are the size they are.
On qualifications, 29% of residents hold a degree or equivalent, 19% hold no formal qualifications at all and 1% are full-time students. That is a varied picture rather than a uniform one: a graduate share that would surprise anyone expecting a purely retirement town, alongside a substantial group who left school and went to work, which is what a working fishing and holiday town produces over a couple of generations.
One number worth holding while reading the rest: of the 7,918 people counted here, 239 live in communal establishments rather than private households, with eight care homes operating in the area. The household shares above describe the 7,679 people living in ordinary homes, and the communal residents sit outside that count rather than inside it.
The people here are comfortable rather than wealthy, settled rather than transient, and honest about what the town is for. If your idea of good neighbours involves knowing which ones will still be there in ten years, Seaton delivers that better than almost anything it puts in the estate agent's window.