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Place dossier plate
SheetVA-BEDFORD-VA · Bedford, VA 6,703 pop · income 16th pct · 20 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
Galax · lowest
41,438
Galax · lowest
41,438 median HH income
16.6% of the leader · rank #1
Kaibito · near
47,692
Kaibito · near
47,692 median HH income
19.1% of the leader · rank #2
Wharton · near
47,692
Wharton · near
47,692 median HH income
19.1% of the leader · rank #3
Fredonia · near
47,694
Fredonia · near
47,694 median HH income
19.1% of the leader · rank #4
Bedford · this city
47,697
Bedford · this city
47,697 median HH income
19.1% of the leader · rank #5
Daingerfield · near
47,697
Daingerfield · near
47,697 median HH income
19.1% of the leader · rank #6
South Run · highest
250,001
South Run · highest
250,001 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: 6,703.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Bedford - the verdict
Nationally, Bedford sits in the 16th percentile for household income and the 38th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
16th
percentile, household income
41st
percentile, home value
62nd
percentile, median rent
38th
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, VA
Virginia's Bedford is a small town, with 6,703 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. The typical household in Bedford brings in $47,697 a year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 16.1%. Bedford's housing stock carries a median value of $192,600, and the median resident age is 43.6 years. About 19.5% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 54.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Bedford reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 1759.8 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, below the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA climate normals record an annual average temperature of 57.0°F with 46.3 inches of precipitation per year.
Virginia tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Virginia scores 101.1 (Near Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,369 monthly. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Virginia's average monthly utility costs around $235 (state average). FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 33.3 out of 100 (Very 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 comparison shortlist to climate and hazard context to housing and income to population change to reported crime to within-city variation to schools and households to work and mobility; 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, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, annual population history.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
Which cities make useful reference points for Bedford?
Within Virginia, the closest population matches are Galax (6,698 residents, $41,438 income); South Run (6,714 residents, $250,000+ income); Bridgewater (6,650 residents, $81,012 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Eastwood, MI (6,704 residents); Jordan, MN (6,704 residents); Tappan, NY (6,704 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.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 57.0°F, with 46.3 inches of precipitation. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Virginia is 33.3 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Bedford?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.0 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 16.1%, 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. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
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 20 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.
Population change
Is Bedford growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
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 +282 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +3.7% change. No comparable local building-permit series is available here, so population change should not be read as a housing-supply measure. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
+3.7%
2025 estimate
7,911
2020 estimate
7,629
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 1759.8 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 23% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
1569.1
Violent rate
190.6
Total reported rate
1759.8
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
The NCES join finds 4 public schools within the city match. 19.5% 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
4
Bachelor's degree+
19.5%
Poverty estimate
16.1%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
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 79.8%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
0.0%
Work from home
5.7%
Drive alone
79.8%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 3,011 workers age 16+.
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Virginia average
F
City profile score · Bedford, VA
30/100
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 D
191 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Cost of living F
101.1 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Bachelor's+ share F
19.5%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
16.1%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$47,697
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bedford profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 49/100 (D) · 191 /100k
Cost of living: 35/100 (F) · 101.1 index
Bachelor's+ share: 33/100 (F) · 19.5%
Poverty rate: 21/100 (F) · 16.1%
Household income: 17/100 (F) · $47,697
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 27 peers.Read the chart values
Bedford, VA (this city): home $192,600, crime 1,760/100k
Jordan, MN : home $319,000, crime 501/100k
Liberty Hill, TX : home $350,500, crime 798/100k
Nephi, UT : home $379,800, crime 870/100k
Galax, VA : home $126,800, crime 4,845/100k
Bridgewater, VA : home $372,400, crime 601/100k
Buena Vista, VA : home $153,500, crime 379/100k
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?
Where Bedford sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income16% higher than other cities
Home value41% pricier than other cities
Median rent62% pricier than other cities
Safety38% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
National percentiles can mask local variation. Looking only at Virginia, Bedford ranks #56 of 117 Virginia cities by lowest crime rate - a narrower, more locally useful cut than the national comparison above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Bedford against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Virginia only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Virginia-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Bedford near the bottom of Virginia's cities
Among the 619 Virginia 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
#447 of 558
20th percentile in Virginia
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 619
0th percentile in Virginia
Median Home Value
#369 of 567
35th percentile in Virginia
Poverty Rate
#97 of 616
84th percentile in Virginia
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#390 of 618
36th percentile in Virginia
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 Virginia only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
16th percentile nationally for median household income · 38th 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+)
$192,600Among the most affordablemore affordable than 59% 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: 4.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#10,817 of 15,516
More affordable than 30% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#8,444 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 4.0×, Bedford sits in the moderate band:
national rank #10,817 of 15,516 and #8,444 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
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
$47,697Bedford, VA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Bedford, VA 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, VA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)19.5%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)16.1%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)54.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
6,703
Median Income
$47,697
Median Home Value
$192,600
Median Age
43.6
Poverty Rate
16.1%
Labor force participation
54.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
19.5%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1759.8
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
190.6
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1569.1
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
57.0°F
Annual Precipitation
46.3"
Annual Snowfall
N/A
Schools
Total Schools
4
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
7,629 residents
2021
7,688 residents
2022
7,728 residents
2023
7,807 residents
2024
7,866 residents
2025
7,911 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
79.8%
Carpool
11.8%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.7%
Work from Home
5.7%
Other
2.0%
Based on 3,011 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Virginia statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $235
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Virginia at $235 (electricity about $115 , water and sewer about $50 ).
These are Virginia 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
Virginia's BEA cost-of-living index is 101.1 (Near Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Bedford is $1,369/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Virginia statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 33.3 / 100 (Very Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Virginia 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 Virginia 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 ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.