Herentals covers 48 km² and has 28,177 residents. The average age is 44, and 50.7% of residents are women. Most households own their home: the owner-occupier share is 69%. Average annual net income per person is €20,032, and households have an average of 1.2 cars. The population is 94.1% Belgian, 1.3% Dutch, 0.6% Romanian, 0.4% Portuguese, 0.3% Polish, 0.2% Ghanaian, 0.2% Iraqi and 2.8% other nationalities.
Houses make up 72.1% of the building stock, with apartment buildings accounting for 27.9%. Across the municipality, dwellings have an average of 5.6 rooms, and buildings date on average from around 1966. Building types include 27.7% open-type houses, farms and castles, 26.2% buildings and flat blocks, 21.8% closed-type houses, 18.1% semi-closed houses, 3.5% other building types and 2.7% commercial houses. There are 57 houses for sale. The average asking price is €464,598, with listings ranging from €185,000 to €1,750,000.
For road travel, the A13/E313 towards Antwerpen, Hasselt and Liège has an access 6 minutes by car from the centre. Access to the A21/E34 towards Antwerpen, Turnhout and Eindhoven is 11 minutes away. The N13, N123, N152 and N153 also serve Herentals. Bus services include De Lijn lines 150 between Lier, Nijlen and Herentals, 210 between Turnhout and Herentals via Gierle, Lille and Poederlee, and 305 between Turnhout, Herentals, Herselt and Leuven. The municipality has 24 bus lines in total. Nearby stations are Herentals, Wolfstee, Olen, Bouwel and Tielen.
Families have 5 nurseries, 12 nursery schools, 14 primary schools and 26 secondary schools in the municipality. Examples include De Speelboom Herentals and Boekidoe for childcare, Vrije Basisschool Arkades and Vrije Basisschool - De Wegwijzer among the primary schools, and Kosh B and Kosh D at secondary level. Shops include Louis Delhaize, SPAR, Carrefour, Colruyt and Delhaize, with 1 of each listed. Blue-bike is available at 1 shared-bike station; no shared-car service or charging station is listed in the municipality. Antwerp International Airport (Deurne) is 25 minutes away by car or 48 minutes by public transport.