Photo: Small-town hero · Public domainA median age of 56.1: Mere Brow is older than 97% of UK towns
0.8% of households live in a terraced house; across England’s towns the figure is 24%. At the 2021 Census Mere Brow was home to 279 people in 127 households. Here, 98% of residents describe themselves as White British. Households without a car or van are rarer here than in 96% of UK towns.
Mere Brow ranks above 97% of UK towns on residents aged 65 and over: 35%
Share of residents in each five-year age band, Census 2021.
No age band is larger than 70–74: one in ten residents, 2.2 times the share across England’s towns. Residents aged 15 to 24 are rarer here than in 94% of UK towns. Typically, 18% of residents are 65 or over across England’s towns.
Broad ages · share of residents
Women and men · all residents
52% women, 48% men
About 94 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.
Below 98% of UK towns: 3.2% of adults are full-time students
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, the share of residents who moved in within the year is 11%; Mere Brow has 15%. Full-time students: 7.9% across England’s towns, for comparison.
Only 18% of households in Mere Brow have dependent children
Household make-up at the 2021 Census. Each square is 1% of households.
Against Lancashire’s towns and England’s towns
People per household
England’s towns.
At 2.2 people, the average household compares with 2.4 across England’s towns. Set beside that, 29% of households have dependent children across England’s towns. The share of one-person households stands at 20%. Shared households of unrelated adults are more common here than in four fifths of UK towns.
Mere Brow ranks below 98% of UK towns on households in flats: 1.6%
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
The figure for households in detached houses is 62% in Mere Brow and 21% across England’s towns. Against that, nearly a quarter of households live in a flat or apartment across England’s towns.
In Mere Brow, 99% of residents have English as their main language, more than in 95% 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
The share of residents born outside the UK is 3.6%, against 18% across England’s towns. The largest groups were born in EU countries (1.8%) and in the Middle East and Asia (0.7%). The wider picture: 90% of residents have English as their main language across England’s towns.
Residents who describe themselves as Christian make up 66% in Mere Brow, more than in 99% 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: 98% of Mere Brow · Lancashire’s towns 82% · England’s towns 73%.
Religion · all residents
Across England’s towns, 37% of residents said they have no religion; in Mere Brow, 29%. As a yardstick, 46% of residents describe themselves as Christian across England’s towns.
Unpaid carers: 15%, a higher share than 99% 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
12 residents give 50 hours or more of unpaid care each week. Fewer adults who have never married than in 97% of UK towns: 23%. Measured more widely, 8.7% of residents give unpaid care across England’s towns. Compared with 44% across England’s towns, 59% of adults are married or in a civil partnership here.
Degree-level qualifications: held by 28% of adults
Highest qualification, residents 16 and over, Census 2021.
Highest qualification · residents 16 and over
Degree-level qualifications cover 28% of adults in Mere Brow, 34% across England’s towns; 26% have no qualification, against 18%.
Mere Brow is older than every town around it
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
- “Lancashire’s towns” and “England’s towns” mean their built-up areas. Census comparisons pool every built-up area in Lancashire (or England), summed the same way as Mere Brow’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 Mere Brow’s residents
What is the population of Mere Brow?
The 2021 Census counted 279 people in Mere Brow’s built-up area.
What is the average age in Mere Brow?
The median age was 56.1 at the 2021 Census. 7.9% of residents were 15 to 24 and 35% were 65 or over.
How diverse is Mere Brow?
98% of residents described themselves as White British in 2021, against 73% across England’s towns and 82% across Lancashire’s towns. 3.6% were born outside the UK.
What religion are people in Mere Brow?
29% said they had no religion and 66% that they were Christian at the 2021 Census; 0% were Muslim and 4.7% didn’t answer.
Is Mere Brow good for families?
18% of households had dependent children in 2021, against 29% across England’s towns. Schools are on Mere Brow’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.