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Place dossier plate
SheetIN-BEDFORD-IN · Bedford, IN 13,824 pop · income 20th pct · 13 tracts
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 Bedford
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Bedford on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Connersville · lowest
45,679
Connersville · lowest
45,679 median HH income
31.1% of the leader · rank #1
Lynn · near
50,250
Lynn · near
50,250 median HH income
34.3% of the leader · rank #2
Apple River · near
50,250
Apple River · near
50,250 median HH income
34.3% of the leader · rank #3
Smithland · near
50,250
Smithland · near
50,250 median HH income
34.3% of the leader · rank #4
Bosworth · near
50,250
Bosworth · near
50,250 median HH income
34.3% of the leader · rank #5
Bedford · this city
50,253
Bedford · this city
50,253 median HH income
34.3% of the leader · rank #6
Newington · highest
146,681
Newington · highest
146,681 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, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Bedford on ACS population and median household income
, plus FBI UCR reporting rate when the extract covers this place. 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: 13,824.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Bedford - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Bedford lands in the 20th percentile for household income and the 93rd percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
20th
percentile, household income
23rd
percentile, home value
27th
percentile, median rent
93rd
percentile, safety
📝 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: Bedford, IN
Bedford is a small town in Indiana, home to 13,824 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Bedford households earn a median of $50,253 annually, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 11.6%. Bedford's housing stock carries a median value of $136,900, and the median resident age is 41.6 years. Educational attainment runs 17.6% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 56.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 0 residential building permits were authorized in Bedford (No Permits), down 100% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Bedford reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 302.8 incidents per 100,000 residents, below the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA climate normals record an annual average temperature of 54.3°F with 48.6 inches of precipitation per year.
Living costs in Indiana run below the national norm: the state registers 93.3 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Below Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,096 per month statewide. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Indiana's average monthly utility costs around $235 (state average). Workers in Bedford report an average commute of 23.0 minutes, with 82.8% driving alone and 5.7% working from home. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 45.5 out of 100 (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Bedford'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 climate and hazard context to comparison shortlist to housing and income to population change to reported crime to within-city variation to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Bedford, city-specific coverage includes within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, local building permits, commute-mode shares, annual population history.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Bedford?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. No single mode completely explains the work trip here. The mix is more useful than a one-number commute grade, especially when comparing places where transit, walking, and remote work divide the non-driving share differently.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 82.8%. The reported mean trip to work is 23.0 minutes.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 54.3°F, with 48.6 inches of precipitation. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Indiana is 45.5 out of 100. Climate normals describe long-run weather; the FEMA score on PlainCities is a state average of county NRI inputs and combines hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and resilience.
The two sources should not be blended into one comfort or safety score. Use the climate values for baseline conditions and the risk index as a prompt to inspect specific hazards, insurance, and local emergency guidance for a particular address.
Which cities make useful reference points for Bedford?
Within Indiana, the closest population matches are Speedway (13,622 residents, $57,158 income); Auburn (13,464 residents, $62,339 income); Chesterton (14,326 residents, $88,536 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Newington, VA (13,824 residents); Bridgetown, OH (13,830 residents); New Franklin, OH (13,830 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.
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. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
PlainCities matches 13 Census tracts to this city.
These joined records add useful context, but they do not need another full-size panel. Each remains a separate measure with its own geography and source boundary.
Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Bedford?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.7 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 11.6%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. Income and home value move within the same broad scale here. The useful next check is not a generic affordability label, but whether similar-size cities offer a materially different income, housing, or commute trade-off.
Household income
$50,253
Home value
$136,900
Value / income
2.7×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Recent estimates point upward. Growth can increase housing demand and service needs, but the permit record must move in the same direction before calling it a supply response; the two series measure different things.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +144 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +1.0% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 0 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
+1.0%
2025 estimate
13,962
2020 estimate
13,818
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Bedford?
Treat this as a reporting-rate comparison, not a prediction of personal risk or a neighborhood-level safety grade. Tourism, daytime population, reporting practices, and variation inside the city are not adjusted away. The state rank and same-state peer table are the narrower comparisons available on this page.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 302.8 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 87% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
252.3
Violent rate
50.5
Total reported rate
302.8
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
The NCES join finds 7 public schools within the city match. 17.6% of adults age 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher in the ACS estimate. These measures answer different questions: the school count describes local institutions, while adult attainment describes residents and cannot be used as a school-quality rating.
The city has a broader matched school footprint, but count alone does not describe performance, capacity, program availability, or attendance boundaries. This profile deliberately avoids converting it into an unsupported family-friendliness score.
Matched public schools
7
Bachelor's degree+
17.6%
Poverty estimate
11.6%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Indiana average
D
City profile score · Bedford, IN
47/100
5 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.
Violent crime A-
51 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Cost of living B
93.3 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Poverty rate F
11.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
17.6%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$50,253
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bedford profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 84/100 (A-) · 51 /100k
Cost of living: 72/100 (B) · 93.3 index
Poverty rate: 33/100 (F) · 11.6%
Bachelor's+ share: 27/100 (F) · 17.6%
Household income: 21/100 (F) · $50,253
Where Bedford sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Bedford's median home value and FBI crime rate plotted with similar-size and
same-state peers (padded with large cities when the peer set is thin). The second
read: pricey does not always mean safer, check which quadrant this city lands in.
Census ACS median home value vs FBI UCR crime rate - Bedford highlighted among 26 peers.Read the chart values
Bedford, IN (this city): home $136,900, crime 303/100k
New Franklin, OH : home $196,600, crime 407/100k
Hawaiian Gardens, CA : home $509,600, crime 2,839/100k
Speedway, IN : home $209,400, crime 2,776/100k
Auburn, IN : home $172,800, crime 428/100k
Cedar Lake, IN : home $259,900, crime 328/100k
New York, NY : home $751,700, crime 3,039/100k
Los Angeles, CA : home $879,500, crime 2,212/100k
Chicago, IL : home $315,200, crime 4,012/100k
Houston, TX : home $253,400, crime 5,442/100k
Phoenix, AZ : home $381,900, crime 3,125/100k
Philadelphia, PA : home $232,400, crime 5,457/100k
San Antonio, TX : home $219,700, crime 5,218/100k
San Diego, CA : home $848,500, crime 2,082/100k
Dallas, TX : home $295,300, crime 4,010/100k
San Jose, CA : home $1,187,800, crime 3,195/100k
Austin, TX : home $512,700, crime 3,709/100k
Fort Worth, TX : home $277,300, crime 3,158/100k
Columbus, OH : home $234,500, crime 3,088/100k
Indianapolis, IN : home $207,000, crime 4,214/100k
San Francisco, CA : home $1,380,500, crime 4,526/100k
Seattle, WA : home $912,100, crime 5,783/100k
Denver, CO : home $586,700, crime 5,755/100k
Oklahoma City, OK : home $215,100, crime 3,570/100k
El Paso, TX : home $171,700, crime 1,772/100k
Washington, DC : home $724,600, crime 4,514/100k
How does Bedford compare to other US cities?
Bedford measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income20% higher than other cities
Home value23% pricier than other cities
Median rent27% pricier than other cities
Safety93% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just Indiana and the picture shifts: Bedford ranks #11 of 110 Indiana cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Bedford against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Indiana only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Indiana-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Bedford near the bottom of Indiana's cities
Among the 850 Indiana cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Bedford ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Bedford only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#594 of 766
22nd percentile in Indiana
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 850
0th percentile in Indiana
Median Home Value
#361 of 771
53rd percentile in Indiana
Poverty Rate
#248 of 849
70th percentile in Indiana
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#341 of 850
59th percentile in Indiana
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 Indiana only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
20th percentile nationally for median household income · 93rd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Bedford's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Bedford's percentile rank on 3 favorable-direction measures (income, affordability, safety) vs. every tracked US city -- higher on every axis is more favorable. Not a composite quality score, just the arithmetic mean of the axes shown.
How Bedford's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$136,900Among the most affordablemore affordable than 77% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Bedford's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.7×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#5,155 of 15,516
More affordable than 67% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#573 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 2.7×, Bedford sits in the affordable band:
national rank #5,155 of 15,516 and #573 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
The multiple is comparatively compact among tracked cities, but a low ratio can still coexist with slow demand or household-level hardship.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$50,253Bedford, IN median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Bedford, IN median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Bedford, IN.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)17.6%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)11.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)56.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
13,824
Median Income
$50,253
Median Home Value
$136,900
Median Age
41.6
Poverty Rate
11.6%
Labor force participation
56.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
17.6%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
302.8
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
50.5
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
252.3
per 100,000 residents
Crime reporting caveat
Reflects incidents reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program — agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies by jurisdiction and year, so this reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score. Not adjusted for tourism, commuter, or daytime population.
Climate
Avg Temperature
54.3°F
Annual Precipitation
48.6"
Annual Snowfall
N/A
Schools
Total Schools
7
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Bedford's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
13,818 residents
2021
13,819 residents
2022
13,941 residents
2023
13,832 residents
2024
13,884 residents
2025
13,962 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
Total Permits (2024)
0
housing units authorized
Single-Family
0
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
23
23
0
$3.7M
2020
27
25
2
$6.1M
2021
31
31
0
$6.4M
2022
16
14
2
$3.0M
2023
0
0
0
-
2024
0
0
0
-
Permit volume decreased 100% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
23.0 minutes
Drive Alone
82.8%
Carpool
8.2%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
2.9%
Work from Home
5.7%
Based on 6,206 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Indiana statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $235
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Indiana at $235 (electricity about $110 , water and sewer about $45 ).
These are Indiana statewide averages, not a meter reading for Bedford. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Indiana's BEA cost-of-living index is 93.3 (Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Bedford is $1,096/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Indiana statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 45.5 / 100 (Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Indiana statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Bedford sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Bedford compares to similar-size Indiana 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, FBI UCR, NOAA Climate Normals, NCES CCD, Census BPS 2024, 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.