Bedford vs Forest

A side-by-side comparison of Bedford and Forest: population, income, housing, and more.

Bedford and Forest are places in Virginia. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Forest has the higher population (12,476 vs 6,703 in Bedford). Forest has the higher median household income ($78,825 vs $47,697 in Bedford). Forest has the higher median home value ($319,100 vs $192,600 in Bedford).

Population, income & housing

	Bedford	Forest
Population	6,703	12,476
Median age	43.6 yrs	42.1 yrs
Median household income	$47,697	$78,825
Median home value	$192,600	$319,100
Median gross rent	$876	$1,112
Housing units	3,246	5,193
Homeownership rate	55.5%	75.0%
Bachelor's degree or higher	19.5%	48.4%
Unemployment rate	3.7%	3.9%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Bedford	Forest
Population	6,562 → 6,703 (+2.1%)	10,836 → 12,476 (+15.1%)
Median household income	$36,364 → $47,697 (+31.2%)	$76,367 → $78,825 (+3.2%)
Median home value	$144,800 → $192,600 (+33.0%)	$234,500 → $319,100 (+36.1%)
Median gross rent	$766 → $876 (+14.4%)	$988 → $1,112 (+12.6%)

Bedford

Population

6,5626,703

Median household income

$36,364$47,697

Median home value

$144,800$192,600

Median gross rent

$766$876

Forest

Population

10,83612,476

Median household income

$76,367$78,825

Median home value

$234,500$319,100

Median gross rent

$988$1,112

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Bedford	Forest
Under 5	3.0%	5.3%
5 to 17	15.6%	14.2%
18 to 24	9.1%	10.4%
25 to 34	16.3%	12.0%
35 to 44	8.2%	10.6%
45 to 54	12.3%	11.6%
55 to 64	13.7%	14.8%
65 to 74	13.8%	10.6%
75 and over	8.0%	10.5%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Bedford	Forest
White (non-Hispanic)	76.9%	76.9%
Black or African American	15.6%	9.9%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.1%
Asian	1.2%	1.5%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	1.3%	1.4%
Two or more races	3.3%	6.5%
Hispanic or Latino	1.7%	3.6%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Bedford	Forest
No high school diploma	15.4%	4.7%
High school graduate	36.3%	17.4%
Some college or associate's	28.8%	29.4%
Bachelor's degree	15.2%	26.2%
Graduate or professional degree	4.3%	22.3%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Bedford	Forest
Drove alone	79.8%	77.1%
Carpooled	11.8%	5.2%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	0.7%	0.8%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	5.7%	16.0%
Other means	2.1%	0.9%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Bedford	Forest
1-unit, detached	62.3%	56.8%
1-unit, attached	5.5%	15.6%
2 to 4 units	9.3%	6.4%
5 to 19 units	8.7%	12.0%
20 or more units	7.2%	7.6%
Mobile home & other	7.0%	1.6%

Poverty & households

	Bedford	Forest
Poverty rate	20.4%	7.5%
Average household size	2.17	2.44
Mean commute (minutes)	20	22
Median year structure built	1969	1991