Mostly homeowners in the second half of their working lives or past it. Three in four households own their home. The typical resident is in their late fifties. One household in five is a pensioner living alone. Wootton is where people come to settle, not where they start out.
The 2021 Census counted 3,781 residents in 1,791 households, and all the figures on this page come from it unless another source is named. About 75% of households own their home, about 16% rent privately and about 6% rent from a council or housing association. Nobody here moved in for the short-lease flat above the takeaway. Most bought a house they intended to keep.
The median age is 57, and only about 17% of residents are aged 25 to 44. The village isn't short of young adults because they're unwelcome. It's short of them because a bungalow with a view of the water isn't what most thirty-year-olds are saving for.
The Office for National Statistics modelled average household income at about £48,000 before tax for the financial year to March 2023. That figure is a few years old, so it describes Wootton then, not today. It's also an average for households, many of which are retired and living on pensions and savings rather than wages. The comfortable living here often reflects a house sold elsewhere more than a salary earned locally.
About 35% of households are one person living alone, and about 21% are a pensioner living alone. The pensioners are part of that first figure, not extra to it. Couples with dependent children make up about 12% of households and lone parents about 7%. On a typical close, you're more likely to live next to a widower with an immaculate lawn than a young family with a trampoline.
About 29% of residents hold a degree or equivalent, about 18% have no formal qualifications and about 1% are full-time students. That's a mixed village by education: retired professionals living alongside people who left school and went straight to work. There's no university here, so almost nobody is a student.
About 76% of residents describe their health as good or very good, and about 6% as bad or very bad, in a population where the typical resident is in their late fifties. Across the Isle of Wight council area, the preventable death rate is better than the England average, and smoking is at a similar level to England. Those are island-wide figures, not Wootton's own.
About 79 people live in care homes and similar communal settings rather than private households. That's too few to change the other figures.
Wootton is ordinary in who lives here: comfortable, settled and older than average, neither struggling nor wealthy. If you're over fifty, you'll fit in. If you're under forty, expect to be one of the youngest people on your street.