Older, owner-occupier and mostly here to stay. Roughly three in four homes are owner-occupied. The median age is fifty-five. About one in six residents sits inside the prime twenty-five-to-forty-four working-age bracket. The Witterings is what a coastal village looks like when most of the residents have already done their accumulating somewhere else.
Roughly three quarters of homes are owner-occupied. About one in six homes is privately rented, and about one in ten sits in social or affordable housing. That puts total renting at around a quarter of the housing stock, which is below the national average and below most of the surrounding south coast. The ownership share itself is heavily weighted toward owners who have been at their address long enough to have paid down or paid off their mortgage. Buyers arriving now are usually arriving with the cash from a sale somewhere else.
The median age is fifty-five, which is well above the national figure. Only about one in six residents falls inside the twenty-five-to-forty-four working-age bracket that dominates city populations. The older end of the age range carries the demographic weight here. About one in five households is a single pensioner living alone. The mix tilts toward later-career professionals and recent retirees, with a smaller share of younger families holding on for the schools.
Typical household income lands at around £52,000 a year on a gross measure, which sits a touch above the average for households across this part of West Sussex. After tax and the rest, the net figure comes in closer to £40,000 a year. Neither number tells the whole story. A large share of household wealth here is held in property and pensions rather than current earnings, which is what the age profile and the ownership share between them would predict. Income is a poor proxy for affluence in an area dominated by people who finished accumulating it twenty years ago.
About three in ten households are a single person living alone, and roughly one in five households across the whole area is a single pensioner. Couples raising school-age children account for about one household in seven. Lone-parent households are roughly one in twelve. Overcrowding sits well under two percent of homes, which is what happens when bungalows and three-bedroom semis are the dominant stock and the average household size is on the smaller side. The household make-up is closer to a retirement-coast pattern than to anywhere with the school-run as the dominant rhythm.
Above average. Owner-occupiers in late career or retirement, with the smaller bracket of working-age families holding on for the schools. The Witterings is a village that grew up rather than one still growing up.