Church of St Margaret · Photo: Robert Cutts from Bristol, England, UK · CC BY 2.0Half of Sea Palling is over 55.2, older than 97% of UK towns
Set against 24% across England’s towns, 7.7% of households have no car or van in Sea Palling. 389 residents in 184 households: that is Sea Palling at the 2021 Census. For Sea Palling, the census puts households with dependent children at 15%. Households in detached houses are more common here than in 88% of UK towns.
30% of residents are 65 or over, a share 90% of UK towns don’t reach
Share of residents in each five-year age band, Census 2021.
The biggest five-year age group is 50–54, with just over one in ten residents, 1.6 times the share across England’s towns. For comparison, 18% of residents are 65 or over across England’s towns. Here, 8.5% of residents are aged 15 to 24.
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.
Sea Palling ranks below 83% of UK towns on full-time students: 4%
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%.
Compared with 11% across England’s towns, 6.9% of residents lived at another address a year earlier here. Against that, 7.9% of adults are full-time students across England’s towns.
Sea Palling households average 2.1 people, smaller than in 87% of UK towns
Household make-up at the 2021 Census. Each square is 1% of households.
Against Norfolk’s towns and England’s towns
People per household
England’s towns.
One-person households make up 27%, against 30% across England’s towns. Across Sea Palling, 3.8% of households are unrelated adults sharing a home.
In Sea Palling, 8.7% of households live in a terraced house, fewer than in 92% 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%; Sea Palling has 5.4%. Against that, 24% of households live in a terraced house across England’s towns.
Above 93% of UK towns: 99% 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%
Main language · residents aged 3 and over
By birthplace, the largest groups from abroad were born in EU countries (2.1%) and in the Middle East and Asia (1.3%). Typically, nine in ten residents have English as their main language across England’s towns. Few places have so few residents born outside the UK: 3.9% here, fewer than in 79% of UK towns.
44% said they have no religion, more than in 70% 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 Sea Palling · Norfolk’s towns 88% · England’s towns 73%.
Religion · all residents
Leading the other groups after White British: Mixed or multiple (2.8%), Other White (2.6%) and Arab (0.3%). For comparison, 37% of residents said they have no religion across England’s towns. Compared with other places, residents who describe themselves as White British are common here: 94%, more than in 64% of UK towns. Christians make up half of residents, against 46% across England’s towns.
15% of residents give unpaid care, a share 99% of UK towns don’t reach
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
20 people give 50 hours or more of unpaid care a week. By way of comparison, nearly one in ten residents give unpaid care across England’s towns. Lower than in 87% of UK towns: 26% of adults have never married or formed a civil partnership. Meanwhile, across England’s towns, 44% of adults are married or in a civil partnership; in Sea Palling, 54%.
Degree-level qualifications: held by 20% of adults
Highest qualification, residents 16 and over, Census 2021.
Highest qualification · residents 16 and over
Degree-level qualifications are held by 20% of adults in Sea Palling (England’s towns: 34%), and no qualification by 21% (England’s towns: 18%).
Of the 7 towns nearest Sea Palling, 2 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sea Palling | 389 | — | 55.2 | 30% | 15% |
| Sutton | 1,026 | 3.3 mi | 50.6 | 29% | 25% |
| Stalham | 3,383 | 3.6 mi | 49 | 29% | 20% |
| Martham | 3,633 | 5.6 mi | 50.4 | 29% | 24% |
| Hemsby | 5,724 | 7.1 mi | 57.9 | 37% | 17% |
| Ormesby St Margaret | 2,741 | 8.6 mi | 52.9 | 30% | 20% |
| North Walsham | 12,829 | 9.2 mi | 50.2 | 29% | 21% |
| Hoveton and Wroxham | 3,620 | 9.4 mi | 56.4 | 38% | 19% |
Health, work and homes have their own pages
What this data can and can’t tell you
- “Norfolk’s towns” and “England’s towns” mean their built-up areas. Census comparisons pool every built-up area in Norfolk (or England), summed the same way as Sea Palling’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 Sea Palling’s residents
What is the population of Sea Palling?
The 2021 Census counted 389 people in Sea Palling’s built-up area.
What is the average age in Sea Palling?
The median age was 55.2 at the 2021 Census. 8.5% of residents were 15 to 24 and 30% were 65 or over.
How diverse is Sea Palling?
94% of residents described themselves as White British in 2021, against 73% across England’s towns and 88% across Norfolk’s towns. 3.9% were born outside the UK.
What religion are people in Sea Palling?
44% said they had no religion and 50% that they were Christian at the 2021 Census; 0% were Muslim and 4.4% didn’t answer.
Is Sea Palling good for families?
15% of households had dependent children in 2021, against 29% across England’s towns. Schools are on Sea Palling’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.