Photo: Dr Duncan Pepper · CC BY-SA 2.0Morchard Bishop is older than 94% of UK towns: a median age of 52.8
By its share of households in detached houses (58%), Morchard Bishop is above 95% of UK towns. The village’s 441 households held 1,041 residents at the 2021 Census. Locally, nearly a quarter of adults have never married or formed a civil partnership. Fewer households without a car or van than in 97% of UK towns: 6.2%.
What the Census says about Morchard Bishop’s people
Older than most towns
Half of Morchard Bishop’s residents are under 52.8 and half over, against 44.4 in the typical UK town. 30% 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).
Residents aged 65 and over: 30%, a higher share than 91% of UK towns
Share of residents in each five-year age band, Census 2021.
55–59 is the most common age band: nearly one in ten residents, 1.4 times the share across England’s towns. For comparison, 18% of residents are 65 or over across England’s towns. The share of residents aged 15 to 24 stands at 9.5%.
Broad ages · share of residents
Women and men · all residents
52% women, 48% men
About 93 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.
Only 7.3% of residents lived at another address a year earlier in Morchard Bishop
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 or semi-routine work; Morchard Bishop has 34% and 20%. On full-time students, Morchard Bishop sits lower than 55% of UK towns: 4.7%. The benchmark for residents who moved in within the year across England’s towns: 11%.
Morchard Bishop ranks below 76% of UK towns on households with dependent children: 24%
Household make-up at the 2021 Census. Each square is 1% of households.
Against Devon’s towns and England’s towns
People per household
England’s towns.
The figure for one-person households is 28% in Morchard Bishop and 30% across England’s towns. Against that, 29% of households have dependent children across England’s towns. There are 2.3 people in the average household. On shared households of unrelated adults, Morchard Bishop sits higher than 58% of UK towns: 2.5%.
A smaller share of households in flats than 97% of UK towns: 1.8%
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
Compared with 24% across England’s towns, 18% of households live in a terraced house here. As a yardstick, 23% of households live in a flat or apartment across England’s towns.
99% of residents have English as their main language, more than in 96% of UK towns
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%
Main language · residents aged 3 and over
Set against 18% across England’s towns, 5.6% of residents were born outside the UK in Morchard Bishop. For comparison, nine in ten residents have English as their main language across England’s towns. Residents born abroad were most often born in EU countries (2.6%), then in the Middle East and Asia (1.4%).
Morchard Bishop: 97% of residents describe themselves as White British, above 95% 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: 97% of Morchard Bishop · Devon’s towns 91% · England’s towns 73%.
Religion · all residents
Residents with no religion make up 36%, against 37% across England’s towns. Elsewhere, 73% of residents describe themselves as White British across England’s towns. 56% of residents describe themselves as Christian.
In Morchard Bishop, 57% of adults are married or in a civil partnership, more than in 92% of UK towns
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
Just over one in ten residents give unpaid care, against 8.7% across England’s towns. Married adults and civil partners make up 44% across England’s towns.
32% of adults are qualified to degree level
Highest qualification, residents 16 and over, Census 2021.
Highest qualification · residents 16 and over
With 32% of its adults qualified to degree level, Morchard Bishop compares with 34% across England’s towns; another 15% hold no qualification (18%).
3 in 7 nearby towns have a higher median age than Morchard Bishop
Nearby built-up areas coloured by median age, Census 2021. Tap a town for its page.
| Town | People | Away | Median age | 65+ | Homes with children |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Morchard Bishop | 1,041 | — | 52.8 | 30% | 24% |
| Copplestone | 1,475 | 3 mi | 40 | 18% | 31% |
| Witheridge | 1,306 | 4.6 mi | 53.4 | 32% | 23% |
| Bow | 1,122 | 4.8 mi | 46.8 | 22% | 25% |
| Crediton | 7,971 | 5.9 mi | 45.2 | 24% | 25% |
| Chulmleigh | 1,232 | 6.7 mi | 54.1 | 33% | 20% |
| North Tawton | 1,785 | 7.5 mi | 46.5 | 23% | 25% |
| Winkleigh | 1,342 | 8.5 mi | 53 | 33% | 21% |
Health, work and homes have their own pages
What this data can and can’t tell you
- “Devon’s towns” and “England’s towns” mean their built-up areas. Census comparisons pool every built-up area in Devon (or England), summed the same way as Morchard Bishop’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 Morchard Bishop’s residents
What is the population of Morchard Bishop?
The 2021 Census counted 1,041 people in Morchard Bishop’s built-up area.
What is the average age in Morchard Bishop?
The median age was 52.8 at the 2021 Census. 9.5% of residents were 15 to 24 and 30% were 65 or over.
How diverse is Morchard Bishop?
97% of residents described themselves as White British in 2021, against 73% across England’s towns and 91% across Devon’s towns. 5.6% were born outside the UK.
What religion are people in Morchard Bishop?
36% said they had no religion and 56% that they were Christian at the 2021 Census; 0.1% were Muslim and 5.7% didn’t answer.
Is Morchard Bishop good for families?
24% of households had dependent children in 2021, against 29% across England’s towns. Schools are on Morchard Bishop’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.