Stotfold is home to families who own their house, earn a decent living and are somewhere in the middle of raising children. Three in four own. The typical resident is about forty. Couples with children are the biggest group in the census household counts. It is a town in the busy years, with very little time left over for anything else.
At the 2021 census, which is the source for every population figure on this page, about 12,600 people lived in Stotfold across 5,037 households. About 75% of households owned their home, about 11% rented privately and about 12% rented from a council or housing association. A tenant hoping to rent here privately is choosing from a short list, and whoever saw the advert first usually gets it.
The typical resident is 40, and about 27% of residents are aged 25 to 44. That is a town at the age where the car seats are still fitted, the mortgage is still large and every weekend belongs to somebody else's fixtures list.
The Office for National Statistics models typical household income here at about £66,000 a year before tax, for the financial year to March 2023. That is a gross figure, and for most households it is two salaries combined, so the comfortable-sounding total has a nursery bill and a mortgage waiting for it.
The household mix leans towards families. About 29% of households are couples with dependent children and about 10% are lone parents, which makes the school run the closest thing Stotfold has to a rush hour.
The rest of the picture is more varied. About 24% of households are one person living alone, and within that group about 10% of all households are a single pensioner. Those are the homes where the extension plans finished years ago, and they share the same streets as the families still drawing theirs up.
On qualifications, about 37% of residents hold a degree or equivalent and about 12% have no formal qualifications, with about 2% in full-time study. Graduates and people who went straight to work live side by side on the same estates, and about the only students in town are the ones who come home at Christmas.
About 87% of residents described their health as good or very good at the census. Across Central Bedfordshire, the council's rate of deaths from preventable causes compares better than England's, and its smoking rate is similar to the national level.
Stotfold's population is one of its strengths: mostly owners, mostly working, mostly healthy, and so busy with family life that the town runs on school terms.