Bedford County vs Wayne County

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

Bedford County and Wayne County are counties in Pennsylvania. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Wayne County has the higher population (51,189 vs 47,503 in Bedford County). Wayne County has the higher median household income ($62,182 vs $60,302 in Bedford County). Wayne County has the higher median home value ($228,200 vs $172,900 in Bedford County).

Population, income & housing

	Bedford County	Wayne County
Population	47,503	51,189
Median age	47.5 yrs	48.9 yrs
Median household income	$60,302	$62,182
Median home value	$172,900	$228,200
Median gross rent	$771	$979
Housing units	23,568	32,054
Homeownership rate	78.1%	81.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher	16.3%	21.6%
Unemployment rate	4.2%	6.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Bedford County	Wayne County
Population	48,337 → 47,503 (-1.7%)	51,422 → 51,189 (-0.5%)
Median household income	$50,509 → $60,302 (+19.4%)	$56,096 → $62,182 (+10.8%)
Median home value	$136,700 → $172,900 (+26.5%)	$181,300 → $228,200 (+25.9%)
Median gross rent	$691 → $771 (+11.6%)	$820 → $979 (+19.4%)

Bedford County

Population

48,33747,503

Median household income

$50,509$60,302

Median home value

$136,700$172,900

Median gross rent

$691$771

Wayne County

Population

51,42251,189

Median household income

$56,096$62,182

Median home value

$181,300$228,200

Median gross rent

$820$979

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Bedford County	Wayne County
Under 5	5.0%	4.1%
5 to 17	14.5%	12.6%
18 to 24	7.0%	6.3%
25 to 34	10.6%	11.2%
35 to 44	10.4%	11.4%
45 to 54	13.0%	12.8%
55 to 64	15.9%	16.6%
65 to 74	13.2%	15.1%
75 and over	10.3%	9.9%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Bedford County	Wayne County
White (non-Hispanic)	95.9%	88.3%
Black or African American	0.8%	2.9%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.0%
Asian	0.4%	0.7%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.1%
Some other race	0.1%	0.3%
Two or more races	1.5%	2.8%
Hispanic or Latino	1.2%	4.9%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Bedford County	Wayne County
No high school diploma	10.0%	8.6%
High school graduate	48.4%	43.3%
Some college or associate's	25.2%	26.5%
Bachelor's degree	9.8%	12.6%
Graduate or professional degree	6.6%	8.9%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Bedford County	Wayne County
Drove alone	79.8%	75.7%
Carpooled	9.5%	9.0%
Public transit	0.6%	0.3%
Walked	2.1%	3.3%
Bicycle	0.4%	0.1%
Worked from home	6.9%	10.4%
Other means	0.6%	1.2%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Bedford County	Wayne County
1-unit, detached	74.2%	84.9%
1-unit, attached	1.7%	0.9%
2 to 4 units	5.2%	4.0%
5 to 19 units	2.7%	1.3%
20 or more units	1.7%	0.6%
Mobile home & other	14.6%	8.4%

Poverty & households

	Bedford County	Wayne County
Poverty rate	11.0%	12.2%
Average household size	2.38	2.36
Mean commute (minutes)	26	29
Median year structure built	1971	1980