Mt. Zion Negro School · Photo: rossograph · CC BY-SA 4.0Bradford has lower household incomes than 91% of U.S. towns
Working from home is the commute for 3% of workers; Tennessee has 13%. Below the poverty line: 24.0% of residents, next to 13.8% across Tennessee. Bradford grades D for jobs and income and D for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Bradford apart on work
Bradford’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Bradford is Jackson, 29 miles away as the crow flies. 18% of working residents (80) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Few Bradford workers work from home
Only 3% of workers work from home, against 13% across Tennessee. 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 448 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Where Bradford’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty and job access, Bradford is better than 8% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Bradford’s grade up (ahead of 35% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
Unemployment (0.0%) is left out: Bradford’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, Bradford could be anywhere from D− to C.
Where in the region Bradford works
About 19% 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.
Bradford’s commute takes about 24 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Bradford workers work from home, vs 13% across Tennessee. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 543 commuters (the 3% who work from home are left out). Across Tennessee: 87% 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.
How many people are in Bradford by day
On a workday 418 residents head out to work, 30 work right here, and 172 people come in from elsewhere.
About 760 people are in Bradford on a workday afternoon, 24% fewer than live here.
0.45 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.
18% of working residents work in Jackson
Where Bradford clocks in
18% of workers
14% of workers
6% 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.
What the 202 jobs in Bradford are
202 jobs are based in Bradford.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Bradford, 2013 → 2023: 207 → 202. 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 Bradford’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The commute in Bradford is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Bradford is more walkable than 9% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 2.0% across Tennessee.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 559 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). 5.1% of Bradford households have no vehicle (Tennessee 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Bradford’s commuters take a bus or train.
Bradford next to U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400: 2,644th of 3,133 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 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 186 | Rossville TN | 1,215 | $120K | 7.3% | 6.1% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 428 | Orlinda TN | 1,028 | $84K | 6.4% | 3.1% | 2% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 480 | Unionville TN | 1,275 | $71K | 1.4% | 0.0% | 2% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,642 | Livermore KY | 1,197 | $40K | 20.9% | 5.5% | 4% | D |
| 2,643 | Brown City MI | 1,280 | $59K | 18.6% | 9.9% | 12% | D |
| 2,644 | Bradford TN | 1,006 | $47K | 24.0% | 0.0% | 7% | D |
| 2,645 | Hammond NY | 1,245 | $73K | 28.4% | 6.0% | 12% | D |
| 2,646 | Farmland IN | 1,265 | $41K | 22.4% | 4.2% | 2% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,133 | 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 Bradford, the top three, the last and three more from Tennessee.
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 Bradford: questions
What is the median household income in Bradford?
$47,361 (±$14,379) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,595 across Tennessee and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Bradford?
24.0%, against 13.8% across Tennessee and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Bradford?
24 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Tennessee and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Bradford work?
7% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Jackson (18%, 29 mi), Milan (14%, 12 mi), Union City (6%, 28 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Bradford walkable?
Bradford is more walkable than 9% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 5.3 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Bradford without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Bradford, from the people who make the trip.
More of Bradford
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.