Golden Cross in East Sussex and Torksey Lock in Lincolnshire are among the oldest populated villages in England, both with an average age of 74, according to census data.
Close behind in the data, published by the Office for National Statistics, was Coalpit Heath in South Gloucestershire, with an average age of 72.
The findings are the latest data published from the census, which took place on March 21, 2021.
A total of 6,406 built-up areas in England outside of London were identified.
These include 5,115 “minor” areas: villages or small towns, where the population is recorded at between zero and 4,999 and is often in the low hundreds.
Golden Cross has a population of 601, while Torksey Lock has only 534 residents.
The privately owned retirement village of Elmbridge in Surrey has the highest median age of all, at 84.
seaside towns
For the largest towns and cities, where the residential population is between 5,000 and 19,999, it was the coastal towns of Hampshire, Lincolnshire and Devon that had some of the oldest populations.
Residents of Barton on Sea, near Lymington on the Hampshire coast, have an average median age of 65, the highest among any community of similar size outside of London.
They are followed by Sutton on Sea and Trusthorpe in Lincolnshire, where the median age is 64, Budleigh Salterton in Devon (62 years) and Seaton, also in Devon, (61 years).
The data shows that of the 30 smallest built-up areas in England with the highest median age at the time of the census, only seven are not situated on the coast.
Stoke Gifford in South Gloucestershire has the lowest median age between large and small towns, at just 27 years, followed by two areas that have British Army sites: Tidworth in Wiltshire (28 years) and Catterick in North Yorkshire (29 years). ).
The ONS analysis does not include London due to the difficulty of identifying individual built-up areas in the capital.
For medium-sized cities outside of London, where the population is between 20,000 and 74,999, Rustington in West Sussex has the highest median age, 56; followed by Bexhill-on-Sea in East Sussex, Lytham St Annes in Lancashire and Seaford in East Sussex (all 54 years old).
Coastal areas again dominate the top end of this list, with only 12 of the top 30 not being by the sea.
By contrast, the medium-sized cities with the lowest median age have sizable student populations: Canterbury in Kent (27 years old) and Hatfield in Hertfordshire (30 years old), along with Loughborough in Leicestershire, Egham in Surrey and Durham in the county. from Durham (age 31).
