Photo: Jared Winkler · CC BY-SA 4.0Household incomes in Bedford trail those of 73% of U.S. towns
At home: 0% of workers have no commute at all (Iowa 11%). Below the poverty line: 10.0% of residents, against 11.1% across Iowa. For jobs and income Bedford is better than 19% of U.S. towns (C−); for walkability it is more walkable than 79% of U.S. towns (A−).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Bedford, in a few figures
A big share show a job far from home
39% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
Few Bedford workers work from home
Only 0% of workers work from home, against 11% across Iowa. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 651 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Bedford
The poverty rate holds Bedford’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 7% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (7.0%) is left out: Bedford’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Bedford could be anywhere from D to C+.
How many miles Bedford commutes
About 39% show a job over 50 miles away. Some of that is real, and some is employers that report every worker at a head office, so a few long commutes are on paper only.
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
How long Bedford spends getting to work: about 20 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Bedford workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 612 commuters (the 0% who work from home are left out). Across Iowa: 86% drive alone, 1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
The daily commute in and out of Bedford
On a workday 537 residents head out to work, 114 work right here, and 324 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,300 people are in Bedford on a workday afternoon, 14% fewer than live here.
0.67 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
11% of working residents work in Clarinda
Where Bedford clocks in
11% of workers
5% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Most jobs in Bedford are in services
438 jobs are based in Bedford.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Bedford, 2013 → 2023: 471 → 438. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.
Primary jobs covered by unemployment insurance (not the self-employed). Pay is monthly earnings. LEHD 2023.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Bedford’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Bedford
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 8.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.4% across Iowa, on an EPA index of 7.3.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 612 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service: no data. EPA’s transit file has no stops for most of this county (its agencies had not published schedules in the format EPA used in 2020). That is missing data, not a finding that there is no bus or train.
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 2.1% of Bedford households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Bedford’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 1,000 to 2,000, Bedford ranks 4,458th of 6,308 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 124 | University Heights IA | 1,177 | $111K | 14.5% | 1.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 138 | Van Meter IA | 1,978 | $135K | 2.6% | 1.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 146 | Walford IA | 1,359 | $129K | 1.1% | 2.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,456 | Eden MD | 1,053 | $40K | 12.3% | 23.3% | 0% | C− |
| 4,457 | Argos IN | 1,761 | $62K | 19.4% | 8.6% | 7% | C− |
| 4,458 | Bedford IA | 1,474 | $61K | 10.0% | 7.0% | 18% | C− |
| 4,459 | Capac MI | 1,943 | $60K | 12.5% | 9.0% | 6% | C− |
| 4,460 | Mitchell NE | 1,513 | $54K | 11.1% | 3.9% | 11% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 6,308 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 0% | D− |
Census ACS 2020–24 (income, poverty, unemployment), Census LEHD (work in town), TownRatings Jobs & income grades. Each town links to its Work & commute page.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Bedford, the top three, the last and three more from Iowa.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Bedford: questions
What is the median household income in Bedford?
$60,781 (±$10,212) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Bedford?
10.0%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Bedford?
20 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 0% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Bedford work?
18% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Clarinda (11%, 17 mi), Maryville (6%, 24 mi), Lenox (5%, 17 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Bedford walkable?
Bedford is more walkable than 79% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.3 out of 20, and 8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Bedford without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Bedford, from the people who make the trip.
More of Bedford
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, primary jobs. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Distances are straight lines between home and work; real drives run longer. Walkability index, job access and transit service: U.S. EPA Smart Location Database. The two grades are our own summaries of these figures, not official ratings.