Photo: Brigitte Luckett · CC BY-SA 4.0Bedford draws 5,664 commuters a day, with 2.1 jobs for every working resident
The two grades for Bedford are C+ for jobs and income and B for walkability. 6,471 jobs are based in Bedford for 3,032 working residents. Home is the office for 8% of workers (Virginia 18%).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Bedford
Bedford is where the jobs are
Bedford has 6,471 jobs, 2.1 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 11,000 people are in town, 43% more than the 7,900 who live here. Day and night ↓
Bedford draws workers from far and wide
The 6,471 jobs in Bedford are filled from a wide area. Bedford’s own residents hold 12% and the ten next-biggest home towns 19%; the other 69% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
Commutes from Bedford are quick
The average trip to work takes 20 minutes, against 27 across Virginia. That’s about 54 hours a year less on the road than the typical Virginia worker. Time on the road ↓
The biggest group of Bedford’s workers comes from Lynchburg
500 of the people who work in Bedford live in Lynchburg, 18 miles away, more than from any other town. The commute map ↓
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.
Inside Bedford’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Bedford is better than 35% of U.S. towns, #204 of 253 in Virginia. All four inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Bedford’s grade.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Bedford could be anywhere from D to B+.
How many people are in Bedford by day
On a workday 2,225 residents head out to work and 807 work right here.
About 11,000 people are in Bedford on a workday afternoon, 43% more than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Commuting in to Bedford: where workers come from
Where Bedford clocks in
11% of workers
3% 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.
The trip to work from Bedford: about 20 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Bedford workers work from home, vs 18% across Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,146 commuters (the 8% who work from home are left out). Across Virginia: 83% drive alone, 3% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
What Bedford’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Bedford, 2013 → 2023: 6,399 → 6,471. 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.
The distance from Bedford to work
About 20% 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.
For most of Bedford, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Bedford is more walkable than 62% of U.S. towns, #166 of 253 in Virginia. Both inputs place Bedford near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 3,408 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 11.0% of Bedford households have no vehicle (Virginia 6.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Bedford’s commuters take a bus or train.
Bedford is 2,182nd of 3,069 U.S. towns of 5,500 to 10,700 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5 | Pimmit Hills VA | 6,589 | $173K | 1.6% | 1.3% | 3% | A+ |
| 6 | Braddock VA | 6,536 | $212K | 0.9% | 1.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 12 | Difficult Run VA | 9,938 | $250K | 1.4% | 1.9% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,180 | Madison Township OH | 6,468 | $59K | 16.1% | 1.5% | 21% | C+ |
| 2,181 | Dexter MO | 7,851 | $52K | 17.0% | 1.4% | 33% | C+ |
| 2,182 | Bedford VA | 7,911 | $70K | 12.2% | 5.1% | 27% | C+ |
| 2,183 | Franklin Township PA | 6,653 | $68K | 13.3% | 4.1% | 18% | C+ |
| 2,184 | Ross Township PA | 5,519 | $64K | 7.3% | 7.8% | 3% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,069 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Virginia.
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?
$70,288 (±$12,886) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $93,170 across Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Bedford?
12.2%, against 9.9% across Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Bedford?
20 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Virginia and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Bedford work?
27% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lynchburg (12%, 18 mi), Roanoke (11%, 25 mi), Forest (3%, 13 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Bedford walkable?
Bedford is more walkable than 62% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 7.6 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Bedford without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 11% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
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.