BrightIN
A town of 5,540, settled in 1847.
Why does Bright grade so well?
Bright is one of the best-graded places in America: an A+, 7th of 585 graded towns in Indiana. The median household earns $109K, a typical home costs about $360K, 4.4 years of the Cincinnati metro’s $81K median household income, and its public schools beat 75% of Indiana towns on state tests and graduation. Its lowest mark, a B+, is in health. Only 58 of Indiana’s 1,086 towns score higher on health. Most errands need a car: it is less walkable than 73% of U.S. towns.
What makes Bright stand out
Where Bright beats most towns.
95% of working residents leave Bright for work
Where Bright’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
How Bright grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Indiana), ordered by how far Bright is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Kings Island and 50 more within 40 miles
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Bright. Close and well known come first.
Big draw33 mi Theme parkKings Island3.5M visitors a year
21 mi Stadium & arenaPaycor Stadium
11 mi MuseumCreation Museum1.2M visitors a year
21 mi Stadium & arenaGreat American Ball Park
20 mi Stadium & arenaNippert Stadium
20 mi Stadium & arenaTQL StadiumPhoto credits
Kings Island: Eli Duke from Portland, OR, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Paycor Stadium: JonRidinger, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Creation Museum: Creashin at English Wikipedia, Public domain · Great American Ball Park: Eric Kilby profile at Flickr website, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Nippert Stadium: Ben Levin, CC BY-SA 4.0 · TQL Stadium: Cornfield948, CC BY-SA 3.0
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Moving to Bright: who provides what
Bright is unincorporated, so Dearborn County and regional agencies provide most services.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Nov 18, 2024.
The data
Ordered by what stands out in Bright.
Bright sends many workers across the state line to Harrison, has less food insecurity than most of Indiana and has household incomes well above the Indiana norm.
Bright has set aside 0.2% of its land for conservation
In 1 park or preserve, walkers have 3.4 miles of trail. One park or preserve covers 14 acres in Bright. The town’s concentration of trails stands at 0.3 miles per square mile, against 0.2 in Indiana’s towns and 0.4 across U.S. towns.
| Bright | Indiana towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conserved land | 0.2% | 1.9% | 4.3% |
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.3 miles per square mile | 0.2 | 0.4 |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Bright Meadows Park | 0.4 mi | 14 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
For cost of living, Bright earns an A−
Typical home values rose 4.6% in the year to September 2026. Among households in Bright, 89% own their home, where Indiana’s towns sit at 76% and U.S. towns at 73%. The rent at the middle of the market in the town is $869 a month.
| Bright | Indiana towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 89% | 76% | 73% |
| Median rent | $869 a month | $947 a month | $1,185 a month |
Typical home value
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Most working residents commute out of Bright
59% of working residents cross a state line to work, Harrison among the top destinations. Bright has 475 jobs for its 2,814 working residents: even if every job went to a resident, most would still commute out.
The top destinations are Cincinnati (17%), Lawrenceburg (6%) and Harrison (4%). Most people who work leave Bright to do it: just 5% work in town. Among residents in the town, 3.3% live below the poverty line. Employers in Bright added 118 jobs between 2013 and 2023, to 475.
| Bright | Indiana towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $109,000 | $71,000 | $80,000 |
| Below the poverty line | 3.3% | 10% | 9.6% |
| Average trip to work | 29 minutes | 24 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Working residents who work in town | 5% | 11% | 8% |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Bright ranks healthier than 74% of the country’s towns
Its widest gap with Indiana is food insecurity: 8.6% of its 4,462 adults worry about having enough food, against 14.7% statewide. Against the 7,294 U.S. towns with household incomes like Bright’s, it is healthier than 54%, a smaller edge than it has nationally: part of it comes with its incomes.
11% of adults have diabetes in Bright. CDC measures, 32 in all: Bright beats Indiana on 15 and trails on 1. In Bright, 16% of adults report frequent mental distress, and 21% get no exercise outside work.
| Bright | Indiana towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 29% | 32% | 33% |
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 16% | 18% | 17% |
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 21% | 26% | 25% |
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 12% | 15% | 14% |
| What stands out | Bright | IN |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 8.6% | 14.7% |
| Fewer adults facing a utility shut-off | 5.2% | 8.4% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 9.7% | 8.3% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Young adults are less common in Bright than in Indiana
The median household earns $108,974, against $71,957 across Indiana, one input to its A for jobs and income.
Indiana has 30% of adults 25 and older with a bachelor’s degree or more; here it is 28%. Adults 18 to 34 are 13% of residents (23% statewide); people 65 and older are 22% of residents (17% statewide). Bright’s midpoint age stands at 42.1 years.
| Bright | Indiana towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aged 65 or older | 22% | 18% | 18% |
| Under 18 | 25% | 23% | 22% |
| Median age | 42.1 years | 39.4 years | 40.5 years |
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 28% | 22% | 29% |
Ages · share of residents
Education · adults 25 and older
Women and men · all residents
50% women, 50% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±2.3 points. Across Indiana, 50.4% of residents are women.
| Bright | IN | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 11.8% | 12.4% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 13.1% | 10.9% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 5.2% | 9.6% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 8.1% | 13.1% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 13.4% | 12.7% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 12.3% | 12% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 14.3% | 12.5% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 15.8% | 10.1% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 6% | 6.7% | 7% |
| No diploma | 4.4% | 9.6% | 10.4% |
| High school | 37.3% | 32.5% | 26% |
| Some college | 18.6% | 19.3% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 11.9% | 9.1% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 13.5% | 18.7% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 14.4% | 10.8% | 14.1% |
U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates
Expect four seasons and pleasant summers in Bright
In July, afternoons reach 85°; in January, nights fall to 22°, and about 16 inches of snow falls in a winter.
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Top of a moderate hazard risk in Bright: inland flooding
Expected damage from storms and floods is lower here than in 57% of U.S. communities. FEMA puts 45% of Bright’s expected hazard losses down to inland flooding, and 23% to tornadoes.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Everything we know about Bright
Colleges nearby
1 within 15 miles of the center of Bright
About 3 of every 100 Bright residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Indiana.
About Bright
Census-designated place in Indiana, United States
Bright is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Dearborn County, Indiana, United States. The population was 5,814 at the 2020 census.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
- Area
- 13 sq mi
- Elevation
- 922 ft
- Area code
- 812
Bright’s neighbors
One town shares a border with Bright.
| Town | IN rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bright | #7 | A+ | A− | — | A− | B+ |
| Harrison Township | #199 | B+ | A− | — | A− | B− |
Bright and Harrison Township report no FBI crime data of their own. Compare Bright with a neighbor →
Questions about Bright
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Bright, IN a good place to live?
Yes, by almost any measure. Bright grades A+ overall, better than 98% of U.S. towns and #7 of 585 in Indiana. It grades B+ for health and A− for schools.
Is Bright, IN expensive?
Not for the area. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades A−.