Bedford is a very small city located in the state of Iowa. With a population of 1,490 people and just one neighborhood, Bedford is the 313th largest community in Iowa. Much of the housing stock in Bedford was built prior to World War II, making it one of the older and more historic cities in the country.
Bedford is neither predominantly blue-collar nor white-collar, instead having a mixed workforce of both blue-collar and white-collar jobs. Overall, Bedford is a city of professionals, production and manufacturing workers, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Bedford who work in management occupations (13.90%), healthcare (12.50%), and office and administrative support (11.10%).
Bedford is a small city, and as such doesn't have a public transit system that people use to get to and from their jobs every day.
The percentage of people in Bedford with college degrees is quite a bit lower than the national average for cities and towns of 21.84%: just 12.54% of people over 25 have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree.
The per capita income in Bedford in 2022 was $29,570, which is low income relative to Iowa, and lower middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $118,280 for a family of four. However, Bedford contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
The people who call Bedford home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Bedford residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Bedford include German, English, Irish, Swiss, and European.
The most common language spoken in Bedford is English. Other important languages spoken here include Italian and Polish.
The way a neighborhood looks and feels when you walk or drive around it, from its setting, its buildings, and its flavor, can make all the difference. This neighborhood has some really cool things about the way it looks and feels as revealed by NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research. This might include anything from the housing stock to the types of households living here to how people get around.
Unpopulated, and rural, the neighborhood is one of the least crowded neighborhoods in all of America. If you like open space, no traffic, and lots of room, this neighborhood may be just what you are looking for. According to NeighborhoodScout's leading research, this neighborhood is less densely populated than 95.9% of the neighborhoods in America.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Swiss and English ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 3.1% of this neighborhood's residents have Swiss ancestry and 20.9% have English ancestry.
There are two complementary measures for understanding the income of a neighborhood's residents: the average and the extremes. While a neighborhood may be relatively wealthy overall, it is equally important to understand the rate of people - particularly children - who are living at or below the federal poverty line, which is extremely low income. Some neighborhoods with a lower average income may actually have a lower childhood poverty rate than another with a higher average income, and this helps us understand the conditions and character of a neighborhood.
The neighbors in the neighborhood in Bedford are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 65.9% of U.S. neighborhoods. In addition, 5.6% of the children seventeen and under living in this neighborhood are living below the federal poverty line, which is a lower rate of childhood poverty than is found in 62.8% of America's neighborhoods.
The old saying "you are what you eat" is true. But it is also true that you are what you do for a living. The types of occupations your neighbors have shape their character, and together as a group, their collective occupations shape the culture of a place.
In the neighborhood, 35.4% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is manufacturing and laborer occupations, with 32.3% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (16.2%), and 14.5% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 98.6% of households.
Culture is the shared learned behavior of peoples. Undeniably, different ethnicities and ancestries have different cultural traditions, and as a result, neighborhoods with concentrations of residents of one or another ethnicities or ancestries will express those cultures. It is what makes the North End in Boston so fun to visit for the Italian restaurants, bakeries, culture, and charm, and similarly, why people enjoy visiting Chinatown in San Francisco.
In the neighborhood in Bedford, IA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (25.0%). There are also a number of people of English ancestry (20.9%), and residents who report Irish roots (9.3%), and some of the residents are also of Swiss ancestry (3.1%), along with some Scottish ancestry residents (2.3%), among others.
How you get to work – car, bus, train or other means – and how much of your day it takes to do so is a large quality of life and financial issue. Especially with gasoline prices rising and expected to continue doing so, the length and means of one's commute can be a financial burden. Some neighborhoods are physically located so that many residents have to drive in their own car, others are set up so many walk to work, or can take a train, bus, or bike. The greatest number of commuters in neighborhood spend under 15 minutes commuting one-way to work (40.8% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America.
Here most residents (72.3%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also carpool with coworkers, friends, or neighbors to get to work (17.5%) and 6.4% of residents also hop out the door and walk to work for their daily commute. In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.