West Kensington is home to young, highly qualified renters, many of them living on their own. About seven in ten households rent. The typical resident is in their mid-thirties. Six in ten hold a degree. Families with children are a small part of the picture.
The 2021 Census, the source for every population figure here, puts owner-occupiers at about 31% of West Kensington's households, against about 44% renting privately and about 25% renting from a social landlord. Private tenants on their own outnumber everyone who owns, outright or with a mortgage.
The median age is 35, and about 39% of residents are between 25 and 44. In the eighteenth century Samuel Richardson and Samuel Foote settled in North End, as the area was then called, because it was a rural retreat. The people arriving now are in their thirties and come for the Piccadilly line.
Typical gross household income in West Kensington, before tax, was modelled at about £75,000 for the financial year to March 2023. That is a high income set against a district where most homes are flats and most residents rent them.
Families are a minority here. About 12% of households are couples with dependent children and about 10% are lone parents with children.
Living alone is the most common arrangement. About 40% of households are one person, and that figure includes the 9% who are a single pensioner living alone. The housing was carved into flats long ago, and the households fit the flats.
About 61% of residents aged 16 and over hold a degree-level qualification, about 10% have no qualifications, and about 3% are full-time students. With so few students, most of those graduates have finished university, found work in London and stayed.
About 87% of residents describe their health as good or very good. Across Hammersmith and Fulham, preventable deaths run at a rate similar to England's, and the borough's smoking rate, about 12%, is also similar to the England figure.
West Kensington's residents are a young, well-qualified and well-paid crowd, mostly renting and often living alone, and as a neighbourhood it comes out comfortably above the middle.