Soho's residents are mostly young, mostly single, mostly graduates and almost all renting. Only about one household in eight owns its home. Over half live alone. The typical resident is in their mid-thirties. In a district built for visitors, the people who actually live here are a fairly small group.
Every population figure on this page comes from the 2021 census, which counted 4,070 people in 2,345 households. About 13% of households own their home. About 57% rent privately and about 29% rent from a council or housing association. That social-rented share is the surprise. The private renters move on with each new job, and the social tenants stay, which makes them some of the longest-standing residents in the district.
The median resident is 35, and about 42% of people are between 25 and 44. That is the age when a two-minute walk to a bar counts for more than a garden. People who reach the stage of wanting a second bedroom tend to move out of Soho to find one.
The Office for National Statistics modelled gross household income, before tax, at about £75,000 in the financial year to March 2023, averaged across the two neighbourhoods that cover Soho. That average mixes high-earning private renters with long-standing social tenants, and doesn't describe either group well.
Households are small. About 54% are a single person living alone, and about 7% are a pensioner living alone, a group counted within that larger figure. Couples with dependent children make up about 5% of households, and lone parents another 5%. Soho has more listed buildings than it has families with children.
The district is highly educated. About 60% of residents hold a degree, about 11% have no formal qualifications and only about 2% are full-time students. The two groups live in the same streets and often in the same buildings.
Self-reported health is good, with about 86% of residents describing their health as good or very good. Westminster's rate of preventable deaths is better than the England average, and its smoking rate is similar to England's, both figures for the borough as a whole. The residents are healthy enough, which helps with the stairs to flats above a shop.
Taken together, the population is middling: a young, educated, single crowd who rent and move on, alongside long-standing social tenants who stay, and very few families or owners in between. It is the right place for someone who wants London on the doorstep and can live with the neighbours changing every year.