Welwyn is mostly settled, comfortable, middle-aged homeowners. About seven in ten own their home. The typical resident is in their mid-forties. Two in five have a degree. A fifth of homes are let by the council or a housing association, and households living alone outnumber families with children.
At the 2021 Census, the source for every population figure here, about 68% of Welwyn's 1,781 households owned their home. Social renting accounted for about 20% and private renting only about 11%. Private landlords are thin on the ground here, which makes a buy-to-let in Welwyn a rarer sight than a council tenancy.
The typical resident is 46, and only about 23% of residents are aged 25 to 44, the age range that does most of the first-time buying, renting and having babies. That age range is largely priced out, and the people who fill the village are either past it or bought in before it got expensive.
Household income across the area, as modelled by the Office for National Statistics, averaged about £76,000 a year before tax in the financial year to March 2023. That is a comfortable household figure, though it is gross, three years old, and still has to cover the mortgage on a village where houses typically sell for around £518,000.
Families are a minority of households. About 21% are couples with dependent children and about 8% are lone parents, which leaves the school run as something most Welwyn households watch go past.
Living alone is common. About 30% of households are one person, and that includes the roughly 18% that are a single pensioner. In a village where about two-thirds of the homes have three bedrooms or more, a lot of those people are rattling around in family houses the family has long since left.
On qualifications, about 42% of residents hold a degree, about 13% have no formal qualifications, and only about 1% are full-time students. With no university nearby, the mix is set by people who finished their studies decades ago, and the nearest thing to student life is the sixth form at Sherrardswood School.
Welwyn's population is a cut above average: secure, well-qualified and well-off. It is also older and more settled than a young family might hope to find, and the people most likely to leave are the ones who grew up here and can't afford to stay.