Photo: Chris Sayles · CC BY-SA 2.0A median age of 61.6: Lavenham is older than 99% of UK towns
Adults who have never married: 24%, below 96% of UK towns. The share of one-person households stands at 47%. 36% of households live in a terraced house, more than in 91% of UK towns. The 2021 Census put Lavenham’s population at 1,224, in 687 households.
What the Census says about Lavenham’s people
Older than most towns
Half of Lavenham’s residents are under 61.6 and half over, against 44.4 in the typical UK town. 42% 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).
42% of residents are 65 or over, more than in 99% of UK towns
Share of residents in each five-year age band, Census 2021.
The figure for residents aged 15 to 24 is 4.4% in Lavenham and 12% across England’s towns. For comparison, 18% of residents are 65 or over across England’s towns.
Broad ages · share of residents
Women and men · all residents
53% women, 47% men
About 88 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.
Lavenham sits below 99% of UK towns for full-time students (1.7%)
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, 33% of adults are in managerial and professional jobs and 24% in routine or semi-routine work; Lavenham has 39% and 21%. Full-time students make up 7.9% across England’s towns. Locally, 13% of residents lived at another address a year earlier.
A smaller share of households with dependent children than 99% of UK towns: 11%
Household make-up at the 2021 Census. Each square is 1% of households.
Against Suffolk’s towns and England’s towns
People per household
England’s towns.
The typical household size is 1.8 people, against 2.4 across England’s towns. Across England’s towns, households with dependent children come to 29%. The census found that 1.9% of households are unrelated adults sharing a home in Lavenham.
19% of households have no car or van, more than in 67% 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
The share of households in flats is 13%, against 23% across England’s towns. The wider picture: 24% of households have no car or van across England’s towns. In Lavenham, a fifth of households live in a detached house.
99% of residents have English as their main language, a share 76% of UK towns don’t reach
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
7.1% of residents were born outside the UK; across England’s towns the figure is 18%. Against that, nine in ten residents have English as their main language across England’s towns. The two biggest birthplaces abroad are in EU countries (2.9%) and in Africa (1.6%).
Residents who describe themselves as Christian make up 55% in Lavenham, more than in 79% 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 Lavenham · Suffolk’s towns 86% · England’s towns 73%.
Religion · all residents
Besides White British, the main groups are Other White (3.3%), Mixed or multiple (1.3%) and Pakistani (0.3%). Higher than in nearly two thirds of UK towns: 94% of residents describe themselves as White British. As a yardstick, 46% of residents describe themselves as Christian across England’s towns. Residents with no religion are about as common here as across England’s towns: 37%.
In Lavenham, 49% of adults are married or in a civil partnership, more than in 58% 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
Against a figure of 8.7% across England’s towns, the share of unpaid carers in Lavenham comes in at 10%. Across the comparison, 44% of adults are married or in a civil partnership across England’s towns. 34 residents give 50 hours or more of unpaid care each week.
Qualified to degree level: 37% of adults
Highest qualification, residents 16 and over, Census 2021.
Highest qualification · residents 16 and over
Against 34% across England’s towns, 37% of adults here have a degree-level qualification, while 19% hold no qualification (18%).
No nearby town is as old as Lavenham
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lavenham | 1,224 | — | 61.6 | 42% | 11% |
| Acton | 1,666 | 3.1 mi | 45.3 | 25% | 27% |
| Great Waldingfield | 1,377 | 3.7 mi | 51.1 | 30% | 27% |
| Long Melford | 3,895 | 3.9 mi | 54.5 | 35% | 19% |
| Bildeston | 1,096 | 4.7 mi | 50.1 | 24% | 24% |
| Sudbury | 23,922 | 5.4 mi | 44.9 | 23% | 25% |
| Glemsford | 3,693 | 5.4 mi | 46.6 | 25% | 25% |
| Great Bricett | 1,518 | 7.4 mi | 28.2 | 8.8% | 40% |
Health, work and homes have their own pages
What this data can and can’t tell you
- “Suffolk’s towns” and “England’s towns” mean their built-up areas. Census comparisons pool every built-up area in Suffolk (or England), summed the same way as Lavenham’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 Lavenham’s residents
What is the population of Lavenham?
The 2021 Census counted 1,224 people in Lavenham’s built-up area.
What is the average age in Lavenham?
The median age was 61.6 at the 2021 Census. 4.4% of residents were 15 to 24 and 42% were 65 or over.
How diverse is Lavenham?
94% of residents described themselves as White British in 2021, against 73% across England’s towns and 86% across Suffolk’s towns. 7.1% were born outside the UK.
What religion are people in Lavenham?
37% said they had no religion and 55% that they were Christian at the 2021 Census; 0.5% were Muslim and 5.8% didn’t answer.
Is Lavenham good for families?
11% of households had dependent children in 2021, against 29% across England’s towns. Schools are on Lavenham’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.