Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Bradford’s best subject grades are an A+ for safety and an A for health and history; its weakest is a C− for hazard risk. On safety, just 1 of New Hampshire’s 149 towns do better. Bradford is more walkable than 76% of U.S. towns. Only 5 of the 126 New Hampshire towns we compare have a lower violent crime rate than Bradford. On civic life, just 13 of New Hampshire’s 187 towns do better. Bradford has 3 places on the National Register of Historic Places, among them Bement Covered Bridge and Bradford Town Hall. Bradford has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade.
Where Bradford beats most towns.
Bement Covered Bridge
Census counts: 217 in 1790, a low of 217 in 1790, 1,662 in 2020. The archive holds 18 old photos and papers going back to 1838 and 5 maps from 1928 on.
3 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within New Hampshire), ordered by how far Bradford is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Who provides power, water and the rest in Bradford, and how to reach them.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Nov 19, 2024.
Ordered by what stands out in Bradford.
Bradford reports less crime per resident than 99% of the U.S. towns and cities we grade. Bradford’s property crime rate is 1.2 per 1,000 residents, below both New Hampshire’s towns (4.4) and U.S. towns (9.9).
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Its public schools are run by the Kearsarge Regional School District. One of its 2 schools is below, with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kearsarge Reg. Elementary School - BradfordLargest public elementary schoolGrades K–5 | Grades K–5 | 177 | C+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within NH on state tests and graduation
Bradford beats the New Hampshire average on 3 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 0. 28% of adults feel lonely in Bradford, where New Hampshire’s towns sit at 30% and U.S. towns at 33%. 15% of adults report frequent mental distress in Bradford.
| Bradford | New Hampshire towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 28% | 30% | 33% |
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 15% | 16% | 17% |
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 81% | 78% | 79% |
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 19% | 20% | 25% |
| What stands out | Bradford | NH |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer older adults who have lost all their teeth | 7% | 8.9% |
| More adults seeing a dentist | 71.4% | 68.8% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Most working residents leave Bradford for work: only 12% work in town. The average trip to work in Bradford is 32 minutes. Since 2013, Bradford has added 109 jobs, to 429 in 2023.
| Bradford | New Hampshire towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 32 minutes | 28 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Median household income | $108,000 | $103,000 | $80,000 |
| Working residents who work in town | 12% | 10% | 8% |
| Below the poverty line | 9.6% | 6.8% | 9.6% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Expected storm and flood damage is higher than in 78% of U.S. communities. Since 1979, 18 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Bradford.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
26% of Bradford residents are 65 or older. Bradford has grown 3.9% since 2020, to 1,723 residents in the Census Bureau’s 2025 estimate. Bradford’s median age is 50.3 years.
| Bradford | New Hampshire towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median age | 50.3 years | 44.8 years | 40.5 years |
| Aged 65 or older | 26% | 20% | 18% |
| Under 18 | 21% | 18% | 22% |
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 38% | 39% | 29% |
47% women, 53% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±4.2 points. Across New Hampshire, 50.1% of residents are women.
| Bradford | NH | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 12.8% | 9.3% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 8.6% | 8.9% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 3.3% | 8.7% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 8.4% | 12.7% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 10.4% | 12.4% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 15.3% | 12.4% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 15% | 15.5% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 19.9% | 12.2% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 6.4% | 7.9% | 7% |
| No diploma | 5.5% | 5.6% | 10.4% |
| High school | 35.3% | 26.8% | 26% |
| Some college | 14.5% | 17.2% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 6.7% | 9.8% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 19.1% | 24.5% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 18.8% | 16.1% | 14.1% |
Census population estimates, 2025 · U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates · in a town of 1,700, single groups can be off by several points
Bradford has cold, snowy winters and pleasant summers, with plenty of rain. July afternoons reach 80°, January nights drop to 11° and about 68 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
22 miles of trail in 12 parks and preserves. The biggest park or preserve is Low State Forest, at 1,024 acres. Only 9 of the 127 New Hampshire towns we compare have a lower trail density than Bradford.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Low State Forest | 0.9 mi | 1,024 |
| 2. Bradford Bog | — | 157 |
| 3. Aiken Pasture (Bradford Town Forest) | — | 134 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
The typical Bradford home is worth about $479,000, up 10% in a year, 6% below the New Hampshire typical home.
| Bradford | New Hampshire towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 85% | 82% | 73% |
| Median rent | $1,507 a month | $1,388 a month | $1,185 a month |
Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Bradford. Close and well known come first.
26 mi MountainMount Monadnock
9 mi Ski areaMount Sunapee77 runs · 1,469 ft vertical
30 mi Stadium & arenaSNHU Arena10 mi Ski areaPats Peak39 runs · 751 ft vertical
28 mi National Historical ParkSaint-Gaudens National Historical Park28K visitors a year
26 mi MuseumCanterbury Shaker VillageMount Monadnock: Jonwmcinenrey, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Mount Sunapee: User:Josephbrophy, Public domain · SNHU Arena: Quintin Soloviev, CC BY 4.0 · Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park: Ser Amantio di Nicolao, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Canterbury Shaker Village: SayCheeeeeese, Public domain
2 within 15 miles of the center of Bradford
About 2 of every 100 Bradford residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across New Hampshire.
Where Bradford’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
3 places in Bradford on the National Register of Historic Places.
3 notable people were born in Bradford.
Town in New Hampshire, United States
Bradford is a town in Merrimack County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 1,662 at the 2020 census. The main village of the town, where 372 people resided at the 2020 census, is defined as the Bradford census-designated place (CDP), and is located in the northeast part of the town, west of the junction of New Hampshire routes 103 and 114. The town also includes the village of Bradford Center.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
4 towns share a border with Bradford.
| Town | NH rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bradford | — | — | C | A+ | B | A |
| Warner | #30 | A− | C | A+ | B | A |
| Newbury | — | — | C | A− | B | A |
| Washington | — | — | C | — | — | B+ |
| Hillsborough | #93 | C+ | C+ | B+ | D | B+ |
Bradford, Newbury and Washington have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. Washington reports no FBI crime data of its own. Compare Bradford with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
That is 4.9 years of the area's median household income ($97,004 across the Concord, NH area). Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades C.
3 notable people were born here, including John Quincy Adams Brackett and Bainbridge Wadleigh.
