United Kingdom · East of England · Local Authority
Bedford
Unitary authority · East of England, England · population ~175k · 74 state-funded schools
Expensive to live in, average to earn in. Bedford’s median house price is 8.5 times annual pay, matching the regional median, while rent consumes a high 34.4% of gross median earnings. Crime is also a concern, at 77.7 per 1,000 people, well above the East of England median of 64.1. Council tax is among the highest in the region, and school quality is the lowest in the East of England, with only 88.6% of pupils in Good or Outstanding places. This option suits those who can afford higher living costs and are less concerned about public services and school performance.
Written from the indicators on this page, 2026-08 data.
The signature
How Bedford ranks across 361 UK Local Authorities
Pay
£40,550/yr
Mid
Better than 60% of UK LAs
House price
£345,000
Expensive
Worse than 67% of UK LAs
Rent
£1,163/mo
Expensive
Worse than 63% of UK LAs
Council tax
£2,472/yr
Expensive
Worse than 62% of UK LAs
Crime
77.7/1k
Mid
Worse than 58% of UK LAs
Deprivation
18.9
Mid
Around UK average
Schools
98.5%
Very strong
Better than 90% of UK LAs
Colour shows quintile position against 361 UK Local Authorities. Green is the best position for someone moving here; red is the worst. Direction is set per indicator — higher pay, lower rent, less crime, less deprivation are all green.
Schools
72 state-funded schools · Ofsted Feb 2026
67 of 68 (98.5%) rated Good or Outstanding under Ofsted's legacy framework. 4 schools are on the post-2024 report-card framework and don't roll up into the legacy total. How we count →
The map
74 schools · pins coloured by Ofsted grade
Grades, phase and pupil numbers for all 74 schools, sortable and filterable.
Schools in Bedford →Places with similar signatures
Nearest by quintile position across pay · housing · tax · crime · IMD · schools
What we don't know yet
Commute times · GP appointment availability · broadband speeds · air quality at LA level · green-space proximity · public transport coverage. These matter for a relocation decision. We'll add them when the source data is reliable nationally and consistent across LA boundaries.