Photo: Michael Garlick · CC BY-SA 2.0A median age of 52: Woolpit is older than 92% of UK towns
Flats are home to 3.1% of households, against 23% across England’s towns. The 2021 Census put Woolpit’s population at 1,838, in 835 households. The census found that 56% of households live in a detached house locally. Households with dependent children are rarer here than in 93% of UK towns.
What the Census says about Woolpit’s people
Older than most towns
Half of Woolpit’s residents are under 52 and half over, against 44.4 in the typical UK town. 31% 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).
Woolpit ranks below 99% of UK towns on residents aged 15 to 24: 6.7%
Share of residents in each five-year age band, Census 2021.
Where 18% of residents are 65 or over across England’s towns, Woolpit has 31%. As a reference point, 12% of residents are aged 15 to 24 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.
A smaller share of full-time students than 99% of UK towns: 2.3%
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 class, 37% of adults are in managerial and professional jobs and 23% in routine and semi-routine work (England’s towns: 33% and 24%). The benchmark for full-time students across England’s towns: 7.9%. The share of residents who moved in within the year stands at 8.7%.
Smaller households than 74% of UK towns: 2.2 people on average
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 share of one-person households is 27%, against 30% across England’s towns. Census figures put shared households of unrelated adults at 2.3% in Woolpit.
11% of households live in a terraced house, fewer than in 85% 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
One in ten households have no car or van, against 24% across England’s towns.
Woolpit ranks above 76% of UK towns on residents whose main language is English: 99%
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
Among residents born abroad, the largest groups were born in EU countries (2.1%) and in Africa (1.2%). To put it in context, nine in ten residents have English as their main language across England’s towns. Compared with other places, residents born outside the UK are scarce here: 5.3%, fewer than in 61% of UK towns.
Woolpit: 95% of residents describe themselves as White British, above 81% 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: 95% of Woolpit · Suffolk’s towns 86% · England’s towns 73%.
Religion · all residents
Here 51% of residents describe themselves as Christian, where the figure across England’s towns is 46%. At 42%, the share of residents with no religion is higher than in 58% of UK towns. Across the comparison, 73% of residents describe themselves as White British across England’s towns. Behind White British, the largest groups are Other White (2.6%), Mixed or multiple (0.5%) and Chinese (0.4%).
In Woolpit, 25% of adults have never married or formed a civil partnership, fewer 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
Unpaid carers giving 50 hours or more a week: 50. The share of adults who have never married across England’s towns is 39%. Woolpit has more married adults and civil partners than 91% of UK towns, at 56%. 10% of residents give unpaid care; across England’s towns the figure is 8.7%.
Adults with a degree-level qualification: 34%
Highest qualification, residents 16 and over, Census 2021.
Highest qualification · residents 16 and over
Against 34% across England’s towns, 34% of adults here have a degree-level qualification, while 16% hold no qualification (18%).
Woolpit is older than every town around it
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Woolpit | 1,838 | — | 52 | 31% | 21% |
| Elmswell | 4,446 | 1.4 mi | 43.2 | 23% | 27% |
| Haughley | 1,316 | 3.3 mi | 48.8 | 29% | 21% |
| Thurston | 3,009 | 4 mi | 49.1 | 27% | 25% |
| Stowmarket | 21,537 | 5.1 mi | 40.2 | 19% | 29% |
| Stowupland | 2,019 | 5.7 mi | 47.6 | 28% | 24% |
| Walsham le Willows | 1,258 | 5.8 mi | 49 | 25% | 25% |
| Ixworth | 2,296 | 5.8 mi | 49.7 | 27% | 26% |
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 Woolpit’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 Woolpit’s residents
What is the population of Woolpit?
The 2021 Census counted 1,838 people in Woolpit’s built-up area.
What is the average age in Woolpit?
The median age was 52 at the 2021 Census. 6.7% of residents were 15 to 24 and 31% were 65 or over.
How diverse is Woolpit?
95% of residents described themselves as White British in 2021, against 73% across England’s towns and 86% across Suffolk’s towns. 5.3% were born outside the UK.
What religion are people in Woolpit?
42% said they had no religion and 51% that they were Christian at the 2021 Census; 0.3% were Muslim and 5.6% didn’t answer.
Is Woolpit good for families?
21% of households had dependent children in 2021, against 29% across England’s towns. Schools are on Woolpit’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.