Stevenage is a town of working families, most of them in their thirties and forties and paying off a mortgage. Nearly six in ten households own their home. A quarter rent from a social landlord. The typical resident is in their late thirties. It is a town of people who go to work in the morning and do the school run on the way.
Stevenage has about 95,500 residents in 38,749 households. All the population figures here come from the 2021 census. About 58% of households own their home, either outright or with a mortgage, about 25% rent from a social landlord and about 15% rent privately. Private renting is the smallest of the three, which makes the private landlord the least typical person on any Stevenage street.
The median age is 38, and about 30% of residents are aged between 25 and 44, the years of first homes, young children and promotions. Stevenage has none of the retired-couple calm of the commuter villages nearby. A town built for young families has been pretty good at replacing them as they grow up.
The Office for National Statistics models median household income across Stevenage at about £58,000 a year before tax, for the financial year to March 2023. That is comfortable money for a two-earner household with a terrace and a lot less comfortable for one person on their own, and it is a gross figure from three years ago, so the take-home pay that covers the bills today is smaller.
About 29% of households are a single person living alone, and about 11% of all households are pensioners living alone, who are part of that 29%. Couples with dependent children make up about 22% of households and lone parents about 12%. Put together, the town has a lot of school-age children and a substantial number of people living alone, often on the same street, in a terrace next to a flat.
About 30% of residents aged 16 and over hold a degree-level qualification, about 17% have no formal qualifications and about 2% are full-time students. North Hertfordshire College has its main campus here, but with only 2% studying full-time, Stevenage is a long way from being a student town. Most residents have left education and gone to work, and the qualifications vary as widely as the jobs.
The people of Stevenage are a fair cross-section of working England: neither well-off nor struggling, mostly owners, mostly in work, and mostly too busy to worry about how the town looks to outsiders.