Photo: Michael Garlick · CC BY-SA 2.0Headcorn sits below 96% of UK towns for residents aged 15 to 24 (7.6%)
The share of shared households of unrelated adults trails 90% of UK towns: 1.6%. 27% of adults have never married or formed a civil partnership. Compared with other places, households in flats are common here: 14%, more than in 66% of UK towns. Headcorn is home to 3,293 residents in 1,458 households, by the 2021 Census.
Headcorn sits above 72% of UK towns for residents aged 65 and over (25%)
Share of residents in each five-year age band, Census 2021.
More residents are 60–64 than any other five-year age: 7.1% of residents, 1.3 times the share across England’s towns. Half of Headcorn’s residents are over 45.2, older than in 55% of UK towns. For comparison, 18% of residents are 65 or over across England’s towns.
Median age of UK towns of 2,500+
■ Headcorn, 45.2. 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.
In Headcorn, 3.8% of adults are full-time students, fewer than in 90% of UK towns
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%.
By its share of residents who moved in within the year (13%), Headcorn is above 94% of UK towns. Full-time students: 7.9% across England’s towns, for comparison.
Headcorn households average 2.3 people, smaller than in 62% of UK towns
Household make-up at the 2021 Census. Each square is 1% of households.
Against Kent’s towns and England’s towns
People per household
England’s towns.
One-person households make up 29%, against 30% across England’s towns.
34% of households live in a detached house, a share 64% of UK towns don’t reach
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
Where 24% of households live in a terraced house across England’s towns, Headcorn has 18%. Here, 14% of households have no car or van. Households in detached houses: 21% across England’s towns, for comparison.
Headcorn sits above 57% of UK towns for residents whose main language is English (98%)
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
Compared with 18% across England’s towns, 6.7% of residents were born outside the UK here. Among residents born abroad, the largest groups were born in EU countries (3.1%) and in Africa (1.4%). Residents whose main language is English: 90% across England’s towns, for comparison.
Headcorn: 54% of residents describe themselves as Christian, above 74% 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: 90% of Headcorn · Kent’s towns 82% · England’s towns 73%.
Religion · all residents
Leading the other groups after White British: Other White (4.9%), Mixed or multiple (2.5%) and Chinese (0.6%). At 90%, the share of residents who describe themselves as White British is lower than in 64% of UK towns. As a yardstick, 46% of residents describe themselves as Christian across England’s towns. Residents with no religion make up 40%, against 37% across England’s towns.
In Headcorn, 52% of adults are married or in a civil partnership, more than in 73% 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
Unpaid carers make up 10% of residents, against 8.7% across England’s towns. For 98 residents, unpaid care runs to 50 hours or more a week. Across the comparison, 44% of adults are married or in a civil partnership across England’s towns.
Degree-level qualifications: held by 34% of adults
Highest qualification, residents 16 and over, Census 2021.
Highest qualification · residents 16 and over
At degree level, Headcorn counts 34% of its adults, against 34% across England’s towns; at the other end, 15% have no qualification (18%).
514 UK towns of 2,500 to 4,000 people: this is the 180th youngest
Median age, Census 2021. Hover a dot for its students and residents born abroad; click for its page.
At the ends of the range sit Keele (20.6), the youngest, and West Chiltington (63.1), the oldest. Nearest to Headcorn in age: Langford (45.2), Tutshill and Sedbury (45.2), Glyn-neath (45.2) and Witton Gilbert (45.3).
Of the 7 towns nearest Headcorn, 3 are older
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Headcorn | 3,293 | — | 45.2 | 25% | 29% |
| Staplehurst | 6,181 | 3.3 mi | 44.9 | 22% | 31% |
| Sutton Valence | 1,457 | 3.4 mi | 45.8 | 21% | 28% |
| Biddenden | 1,345 | 3.8 mi | 44.1 | 21% | 31% |
| Kingswood | 1,371 | 4 mi | 53.4 | 30% | 23% |
| Lenham and Harrietsham | 4,763 | 5.6 mi | 43.5 | 24% | 29% |
| Marden | 3,489 | 5.9 mi | 38.5 | 18% | 32% |
| Bethersden | 1,008 | 6.2 mi | 50.8 | 28% | 24% |
Health, work and homes have their own pages
What this data can and can’t tell you
- “Kent’s towns” and “England’s towns” mean their built-up areas. Census comparisons pool every built-up area in Kent (or England), summed the same way as Headcorn’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 Headcorn’s residents
What is the population of Headcorn?
The 2021 Census counted 3,293 people in Headcorn’s built-up area.
What is the average age in Headcorn?
The median age was 45.2 at the 2021 Census, older than 55% of UK towns. 7.6% of residents were 15 to 24 and 25% were 65 or over.
How diverse is Headcorn?
90% of residents described themselves as White British in 2021, against 73% across England’s towns and 82% across Kent’s towns. 6.7% were born outside the UK.
What religion are people in Headcorn?
40% said they had no religion and 54% that they were Christian at the 2021 Census; 0.7% were Muslim and 4.6% didn’t answer.
Is Headcorn good for families?
29% of households had dependent children in 2021, against 29% across England’s towns. Schools are on Headcorn’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.