People who already lived here, in houses they own. Around two thirds are owner-occupiers. A third of households are one person on their own. Students are effectively absent. This is a settled town rather than a churning one, and every figure underneath repeats that point in a different accent.
Census 2021 is the source for the population figures on this page, and it puts owner-occupation at about 64% of households. Private renting accounts for roughly 21% and social renting about 14%. That is a real rental market rather than a token one, which matters in a rural town where the alternative is a housing ladder with no bottom rung.
The age profile is the fact that shapes everything else. The typical resident is 47, and about 22% of people fall in the twenty-five to forty-four band. That single number explains the school rolls, the pace of the high street and why the town feels calm at nine on a Friday night. There are people in their thirties here. They are simply outnumbered.
Household income runs at roughly £45,000 a year before tax, modelled for the area in the financial year to March 2023 rather than today. After tax the equivalent net figure comes out around £36,400. Both are averages across an area that contains detached houses and social housing on the same map, so treat them as the middle of a wide spread rather than a description of anybody in particular.
Household make-up is where the town gets interesting. About 33% of households are a single person living alone, and around 18% of all households are a pensioner living alone, that second group sitting inside the first rather than alongside it. Couples with children account for roughly 16% and lone-parent households about 10%. A town where one household in three is a single occupant is a town with a lot of front doors and not many cars behind them.
On qualifications, about 24% of residents hold a degree-level qualification and around 19% hold none at all. Full-time students make up roughly 1% of the population, which is what happens when the nearest university is somebody else's problem. The mix is broad rather than concentrated at either end, which is normal for a market town that has always employed people in trades, farming and retail rather than in offices.
Around 120 residents live in communal establishments such as care homes rather than in private households, out of a population of about 6,350. It is a small share, but it is worth knowing when reading the single-pensioner figure, because the two describe overlapping realities of an older town.
The people are the quietest part of the argument for South Molton. Nothing here is failing, but an older, settled, thinly-renewed population is a genuinely different proposition from a growing one, and anyone buying should be clear about which town they are joining.