About Bedford

Bedford is a somewhat small town located in the state of New Hampshire. With a population of 18,274 people and just one neighborhood, Bedford is the 15th largest community in New Hampshire.

Bedford is a decidedly white-collar town, with fully 88.59% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Bedford is a town of professionals, sales and office workers, and managers. There are especially a lot of people living in Bedford who work in management occupations (18.56%), sales jobs (16.00%), and office and administrative support jobs (11.86%).

Also of interest is that Bedford has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.

In addition, Bedford is home to many people who could be described as "urban sophisticates." Urban sophisticates are educated, wealthy, executives and professionals, who have urbane tastes in books, food, and travel, whether they actually live in a big city, or choose to reside in a small town. In big or medium-sized cities, urban sophisticates tend to frequent art institutions such as opera, symphonies, ballet, live theatre, and museums.

Because of many things, Bedford is a very good place for families to consider. With an enviable combination of good schools, low crime, college-educated neighbors who tend to support education because of their own experiences, and a high rate of home ownership in predominantly single-family properties, Bedford really has some of the features that families look for when choosing a good community to raise children. Is Bedford perfect? Of course not, and if you like frenetic night life, it will be far from your cup of tea. But overall this is a solid community, with many things to recommend it as a family-friendly place to live.

Bedford is a very car-oriented town. This is because most people - 97.5% - drive by car to work every day, and few people choose alternative modes of transportation, such as public transit, cycling, or walking. In general, car-oriented communities have a layout that emphasizes streets, highways, and ease of parking, and sometimes this can be to the detriment of human-scale priorities such as walkability alongside roads, and public spaces. For example, strip malls are something you will find in Bedford.

Bedford is a small town, and as such doesn't have a public transit system that people use to get to and from their jobs every day.

Bedford Information and Demographics

If knowledge is power, Bedford is a pretty powerful place. 49.31% of the adults in Bedford have earned a 4-year college degree, masters degree, MD, law degree, or even PhD. Compare that to the national average of 14.96% for all cities and towns.

The per capita income in Bedford in 2000 was $37,730, which is wealthy relative to New Hampshire and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $150,920 for a family of four. However, Bedford contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

The people who call Bedford home come from a variety of different races and ancestries. The most prevalent race in Bedford is White, followed by Asian. Important ancestries of people in Bedford include Irish, French Canadian, English, German, Italian, French, Polish, and Greek.

The most common language spoken in Bedford is English. Some people also speak French.