Most people in Stow-on-the-Wold have finished raising a family and kept the house afterwards. Two-thirds own their home. The typical resident is nearly sixty. More than a quarter of households are one pensioner living alone. Families with young children make up only a small share of the town.
Stow had 1,907 residents in 968 households at the 2021 Census, and every figure on this page comes from that census unless it says otherwise. About 67% of households own their home, about 13% rent privately and about 19% rent from a council or housing association. Social renters outnumber private tenants in Stow, which is the reverse of what the honey-coloured postcards suggest.
The median resident is 58. Only about 16% of people are aged 25 to 44, the age when most people are busy building careers somewhere they can commute from. The town's working-age gap is mostly people who left to be near a station.
The Office for National Statistics modelled gross household income at about £52,000 for the financial year to March 2023. That figure is before tax and averaged over a wider part of the Cotswolds than the town. In a place where many people own their home outright, the payslip matters less than the house that came with it.
About 42% of households are one person living alone, and about 27% are a single pensioner, a group that falls within that 42%. Couples with dependent children make up about 11% and lone parents about 5%. Another 53 people live in communal establishments, and the town has two care homes. Living alone is the most common household type in Stow.
About 32% of residents hold a degree, and about 22% have no formal qualifications, a split you would expect where retired professionals and long-standing local families live side by side. Full-time students are about 1% of residents. Anyone of student age has usually left.
Stow's population is settled, comfortably off and mostly made up of owners, which makes it a pleasant place for anyone at a similar stage of life. Younger buyers will mainly find neighbours who are a generation older.