Wilstead is a village of homeowners in early middle age who earn well and stay put. Three quarters own their homes. The typical resident is about 40. Household incomes are healthy. People here put down roots and buy the furniture to go with them.
Across the Wilstead area, which includes Haynes, Haynes Church End and Houghton Conquest, about 75% of households own their home. About 8% rent privately and 13% rent from a social landlord. Every population figure on this page comes from the 2021 census unless it says otherwise. With private renting at 8%, anyone arriving on a tenancy is outnumbered at every street party.
The median resident is about 40, and around 27% of people are aged 25 to 44, the years of mortgages and school runs. That mix gives a village with a working-age core and enough older residents to keep the parish noticeboard busy.
Household income across the area was modelled by the Office for National Statistics at about £70,000 before tax for the financial year to March 2023, an area-wide estimate that is now a few years old. Before tax is the number that looks good in a pub, and the village's two-car driveways run on what is left.
About 21% of households are one person living alone, and within that, about 11% are pensioners living alone. Couples with dependent children make up about 21% of households and lone parents about 9%. The rest are mostly couples whose children have grown up or never arrived, which helps explain why four-bedroom houses aren't scarce here. Plenty of those spare bedrooms now hold a desk and an exercise bike.
About 36% of residents hold a degree-level qualification and about 13% have no formal qualifications. Full-time students make up about 2%, so there are no campus terms here and nobody's parents arrive in September with a carload of saucepans.
About 86% of residents describe their health as good or very good, and about 4% as bad or very bad. For Central Bedfordshire as a whole, deaths from preventable causes are better than the England rate and smoking, at about 10% of adults, is similar to England. Those two are council-wide comparisons and describe the district, not the village.
The people of Wilstead are one of its strengths: settled owners on good incomes in good health, who show every sign of staying put.