Photo: David Smith · CC BY-SA 2.0Porthleven is older than 90% of UK towns: a median age of 51.3
The share of residents with no religion is 46%, against 37% across England’s towns. Households with dependent children: just over a fifth of the total. Few places have as many one-person households: 33% here, more than in 76% of UK towns. Porthleven had 3,118 residents in 1,442 households at the 2021 Census.
What the Census says about Porthleven’s people
Older than most towns
Half of Porthleven’s residents are under 51.3 and half over, against 44.4 in the typical UK town. 29% are 65 or over, against 18% across England’s towns. Ages ↓
Written from the data on this page: ONS Census 2021 (output areas summed to the 2022 built-up area).
More residents aged 65 and over than 89% of UK towns: 29%
Share of residents in each five-year age band, Census 2021.
Where just over one in ten residents are aged 15 to 24 across England’s towns, Porthleven has 9.1%. Elsewhere, 18% of residents are 65 or over across England’s towns.
Median age of UK towns of 2,500+
■ Porthleven, 51.3. The typical town is 44.4.
Broad ages · share of residents
Women and men · all residents
53% women, 47% men
About 89 men for every 100 women. Across England, 51% of residents are women. Women live longer than men, so towns with many older residents have more women.
A lower share of residents who moved in within the year than 82% of UK towns, at 7.2%
What adults did at the 2021 Census (the ONS’s NS-SEC classes), and where residents lived a year earlier.
Adults by occupation class · residents 16 and over
Address a year before the Census
Residents who lived somewhere else a year earlier. The bar runs to 25%.
Across England’s towns, a third of adults are in managerial and professional jobs and 24% in routine work; in Porthleven, 30% and 27%. The benchmark for residents who moved in within the year across England’s towns: 11%. On the census count, 4.9% of adults are full-time students.
Porthleven households average 2.2 people, smaller than in 86% of UK towns
Household make-up at the 2021 Census. Each square is 1% of households.
Against Cornwall’s towns and England’s towns
People per household
England’s towns.
In Porthleven, 2.6% of households are unrelated adults sharing a home, beside 4.3% across England’s towns.
Households in detached houses: 39%, a higher share than 74% of UK towns
Accommodation type and cars or vans per household, Census 2021. Owning and renting are on Cost of living.
Type of home
Cars or vans · share of households
Across England’s towns, the share of households in flats is 23%; Porthleven has 13%. By contrast, on households without a car or van, Porthleven sits lower than 55% of UK towns: 14%. Against that, just over a fifth of households live in a detached house across England’s towns. In Porthleven, just over a fifth of households live in a terraced house.
Above 99% of UK towns: 100% of residents have English as their main language
Country of birth, year of arrival and main language, Census 2021.
Born outside the UK, by region · share of all residents; the bar runs to 25%
When those born abroad arrived
Main language · residents aged 3 and over
Across England’s towns, 18% of residents were born outside the UK; in Porthleven, 3.9%. 100% of residents have English as their main language.
In Porthleven, 94% of residents describe themselves as White British, more than in 65% of UK towns
How residents described themselves at the 2021 Census. Lines join the lowest and highest of the three figures.
Ethnic groups other than White British · all residents
White British, not charted: 94% of Porthleven · Cornwall’s towns 93% · England’s towns 73%.
Religion · all residents
The next-largest groups, after White British, are Other White (2%), Mixed or multiple (1.4%) and Chinese (0.2%). Porthleven has fewer residents who describe themselves as Christian than 73% of UK towns, at 46%.
Porthleven sits below 77% of UK towns for adults who have never married (29%)
Legal partnership status (residents 16 and over) and unpaid care (residents 5 and over), Census 2021.
Partnership status · residents 16 and over
Unpaid care given · share of residents 5 and over
Unpaid carers giving 50 hours or more a week: 95. On unpaid carers, Porthleven sits higher than 83% of UK towns: 11%. By way of comparison, 39% of adults have never married or formed a civil partnership across England’s towns. Where 44% of adults are married or in a civil partnership across England’s towns, Porthleven has 49%.
Degree level: the highest qualification of 30% of adults
Highest qualification, residents 16 and over, Census 2021.
Highest qualification · residents 16 and over
15% of Porthleven’s adults have no qualification (18% across England’s towns), and 30% have one at degree level (34%).
Ranked by age, 83rd oldest of 514 UK towns this size
Median age, Census 2021. Hover a dot for its students and residents born abroad; click for its page.
Keele is the youngest (20.6); West Chiltington the oldest (63.1). Nearest to Porthleven in age: Binley Woods (51.3), Barnt Green (51.3), Kirkbymoorside (51.5) and Newlyn (51.5).
2 in 7 nearby towns have a higher median age than Porthleven
Nearby built-up areas coloured by median age, Census 2021. Tap a town for its page.
Health, work and homes have their own pages
What this data can and can’t tell you
- “Cornwall’s towns” and “England’s towns” mean their built-up areas. Census comparisons pool every built-up area in Cornwall (or England), summed the same way as Porthleven’s figures, so households in open countryside are left out.
- Small counts are blurred. The ONS adds small random changes to Census counts to protect privacy, so the same total differs a little between tables, and the shares of a small town can move by a point or two.
Questions about Porthleven’s residents
What is the population of Porthleven?
The 2021 Census counted 3,118 people in Porthleven’s built-up area.
What is the average age in Porthleven?
The median age was 51.3 at the 2021 Census, older than 90% of UK towns. 9.1% of residents were 15 to 24 and 29% were 65 or over.
How diverse is Porthleven?
94% of residents described themselves as White British in 2021, against 73% across England’s towns and 93% across Cornwall’s towns. 3.9% were born outside the UK.
What religion are people in Porthleven?
46% said they had no religion and 46% that they were Christian at the 2021 Census; 0.1% were Muslim and 6.2% didn’t answer.
Is Porthleven good for families?
22% of households had dependent children in 2021, against 29% across England’s towns. Schools are on Porthleven’s schools page.
Sources: ONS Census 2021, output areas summed to the ONS 2022 built-up area (TS002, TS003, TS004, TS007A, TS008, TS015, TS017, TS019, TS021, TS029, TS030, TS039, TS044, TS045, TS062, TS067). All under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.