Wotton-under-Edge is home to owner-occupiers in middle age, with good incomes and plenty of degrees. Seven in ten households own their home. The typical resident is in their late forties. About a third of households are one person living alone, and many of those are pensioners. Young adults are thin on the ground, mostly because the town offers them few reasons to stay.
The 2021 Census counted 5,628 people in Wotton-under-Edge, and it is the source for every population figure here. About 70% of households own their home, 15% rent privately and 13% rent from a council or housing association. With seven in ten households owners, the private renters are a small group. When a decent rental comes up here, the queue for it forms fast.
The median age is 48, and only about 20% of residents are in the 25 to 44 age bracket. The people in that bracket are the ones raising children and building careers, and in Wotton they are outnumbered by people who have already done both. The town's annual Feast of the Cross fair goes back to its 1252 charter, and the town has been running at the pace of its older residents for most of the time since.
The Office for National Statistics models gross household income for the area at about £64,500 a year before tax, for the financial year to March 2023. That is comfortable, but it is a modelled average for the whole area, and it includes many households where a pension, not a salary, is the main income.
About 32% of households are one person living alone, and about 17% of all households are a single pensioner, a group counted within that 32%. Couples with dependent children make up about 20% of households and lone parents about 8%. The town has more people living on their own than families with children.
About 40% of adults hold a degree or higher, 15% have no formal qualifications, and only about 1% are full-time students. Wotton has a lot of graduates, and very few of them are still studying. Most took their degree years ago and somewhere else.
Wotton-under-Edge has an above-average population mix: stable, well-off and mostly owning their homes. The most likely neighbours are a retired couple or a household of one, and young families are fewer than the size of the houses would suggest.