The population of the parish in the 2001 census was 542 with 233 households.

Amenities include the Church, School, a Public House, Village Hall, Village Garden and Cricket Field with small pavilion. There is currently no village playing field or children's playground. Running NW to SE is the Trailway, a bridleway from Spetisbury to the boundary with Blandford.

There is evidence that Spetisbury was inhabited in the Bronze Age (burial rings up at West End) and Iron Age (Spetisbury Rings) but the first documentary evidence is William the Conqueror's Domesday Book which, mentioned the manors of Spetisbury and Great Crawford. During the Middle Ages the village consisted of three manors or estates, Spetisbury (in the north), Middle Street (around the village hall) and Great Crawford (to the south). These were gradually combined and by 1800 the landowner Francis Fane owned the majority of the parish. By 1869 the major landowner was the Drax Estate. It is to them that we owe the inconsistent house numbering as only the houses they owned which were numbered.

In 2006 there are still many signs in Spetisbury of previous centuries. The first record of Crawford Bridge was in 1334, the church has parts dating from Norman times, a carving from the eighteenth century Spetisbury Manor House is set in the churchyard wall, the village hall and houses in St Monica's were once part of a nunnery, many of the cob and thatch cottages date from the eighteenth century or earlier, and many of the medieval fords still exist.

The main employment has always been farming, with associated crafts such as blacksmith, bakery, butcher, dairyman. The River Stour and the many springs up at West End were probably the reason the first residents chose this area and have continued to provide work and food (the cress beds, reed cutting and basket-making, fishing) and leisure facilities (swimming, canoeing).

Spetisbury Village Hall a brief history

The present Village hall, caretaker's premises and the private dwellings known as "St Monica's" are all that remain of "St Monica's Priory", the main buildings of which were sold and demolished in 1927.

In 1735, on the 4.5 acre site now occupied by Priory Gardens and St Monica's and originally known as Middle Street, was built by Mr William Hody. The next owner was John Newton of Staffordshire, a West India merchant, who made many additions, it then being known as Spettisbury House.

During 1800 it was acquired by the then Lord of the Manor of Spettisbury Francis Fane who was also MP for Dorchester. Later that year the House became the home of Nuns of the Augustinian Order of St Monica. This was an English Community founded in Louvain in 1609, whose members had fled the approaching French Army in 1794. Seeking refuge in England they lived for 6 years in Amesbury before settling in Spetisbury. Here they ran a school for about 40 young ladies, at what became known as "The Priory". They remained here until 1861 when they moved to Abbotskerwell, Newton Abbot where they are now known as St Augustine's Priory.