Side-by-side metrics and state or size-class ranks use the same Census and FBI fields shown on this profile. Results stay in the URL so you can bookmark or share them.
Place dossier plate
SheetIA-BRADFORD-IA · Bradford, IA 196 pop · income 40th pct
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Bradford
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Bradford on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Lake Bruce · lowest
29,643
Lake Bruce · lowest
29,643 median HH income
33.5% of the leader · rank #1
Trowbridge Pa… · near
63,176
Trowbridge Pa… · near
63,176 median HH income
71.4% of the leader · rank #2
Montrose · near
63,177
Montrose · near
63,177 median HH income
71.4% of the leader · rank #3
St. Croix Fal… · near
63,179
St. Croix Fal… · near
63,179 median HH income
71.4% of the leader · rank #4
Bradford · this city
63,182
Bradford · this city
63,182 median HH income
71.4% of the leader · rank #5
Klickitat · near
63,182
Klickitat · near
63,182 median HH income
71.4% of the leader · rank #6
Thurman · highest
88,500
Thurman · highest
88,500 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Bradford on ACS population and median household income
. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 196.
Nationally, Bradford sits in the 40th percentile for household income among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS.
40th
percentile, household income
11th
percentile, median rent
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Bradford, IA
196 people live in Bradford, Iowa - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Bradford households earn a median of $63,182 annually, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 0.0%. The median resident age is 33.3 years. Educational attainment runs 0.0% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 62.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Living costs in Iowa run below the national norm: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Iowa at 87.8 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Well Below Average). Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $989 monthly. Monthly utility costs average around $212 across Iowa, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. The average commute for Bradford workers runs 31.5 minutes, with 100.0% driving alone and 0.0% working from home. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 39.7 out of 100 (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Bradford's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from work and mobility to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Bradford, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What does the journey to work look like in Bradford?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 100.0%. The reported mean trip to work is 31.5 minutes.
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. The profile is strongly car-oriented, so a relocation comparison should put trip distance, vehicle access, and household fuel costs ahead of a citywide commute average. The same-state peer links offer a more relevant benchmark than a national label.
Which cities make useful reference points for Bradford?
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching.
Within Iowa, the closest population matches are New Providence (196 residents, $83,250 income); Thurman (197 residents, $88,500 income); Marathon (199 residents, $40,417 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Dunreith, IN (196 residents); Lake Bruce, IN (196 residents); Crellin, MD (196 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
Below median income · poverty 0.0% (Very low poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
87.8 (US=100)
Very affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Iowa average
C+
City profile score · Bradford, IA
61/100
4 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2023
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Poverty rate A+
0.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Cost of living A+
87.8 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Household income F
$63,182
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
0.0%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Bradford profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Poverty rate: 100/100 (A+) · 0.0%
Cost of living: 94/100 (A+) · 87.8 index
Household income: 39/100 (F) · $63,182
Bachelor's+ share: 0/100 (F) · 0.0%
How does Bradford compare to other US cities?
Here's how Bradford stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income40% higher than other cities
Median rent11% pricier than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Bradford against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Iowa only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Iowa-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Bradford near the bottom of Iowa's cities
Among the 858 Iowa cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Bradford ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Bradford only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#470 of 845
44th percentile in Iowa
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 858
0th percentile in Iowa
Poverty Rate
#764 of 858
0th percentile in Iowa
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#855 of 858
0th percentile in Iowa
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within Iowa only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
40th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Income distribution context
$63,182Bradford, IA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Bradford, IA median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Bradford, IA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)0.0%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)0.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)62.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
196
Median Income
$63,182
Median Home Value
N/A
Median Age
33.3
Poverty Rate
0.0%
Labor force participation
62.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
0.0%
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
31.5 minutes
Drive Alone
100.0%
Carpool
0.0%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
0.0%
Based on 89 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Iowa statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $212
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Iowa at $212 (electricity about $95 , water and sewer about $42 ).
These are Iowa statewide averages, not a meter reading for Bradford. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Iowa's BEA cost-of-living index is 87.8 (Well Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Bradford is $989/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Iowa statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 39.7 / 100 (Very Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Iowa statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Bradford sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Bradford compares to similar-size Iowa cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.