East of England · Unitary authority

Bedford

2026/27 view

Bedford · ONS E06000055

Financial position as at 2026/27 Q1 quarter end

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PEOPLE AND PLACE

Population and community profile

Latest official statistics

Population 194,976 2024

East of England region 6,576,306

Five-year population change

+14,325 residents ↑ 7.9%

Bedford +7.9%

East of England +4.8%

England +4.3%

Growth context

Bedford's population grew over five years. Its change was 3.1 percentage points above the East of England and 3.7 percentage points above England.

2019–2024 ONS mid-year estimates

Population estimates and labour-market measures from ONS/Nomis.Official profile

AIR QUALITY

How clean is the air?

Long-term particulate pollution across the council area, alongside measurements from local UK-AIR monitoring stations.

Defra 2,024

POPULATION-WEIGHTED ANNUAL MEAN

Fine particulate matter

7.1 µg/m³

PM2.5 · 2,024

Human-related sources 6.6 µg/m³

Other sources 0.5 µg/m³

Modelled population-weighted annual concentration across the local authority area. This is not a live sensor reading.

LONG-TERM TREND

PM2.5 over time

43.2%

12.5 7.1

2011 2024

Since 2011 ↓ 43.2%

5 years ↓ 30.9%

10 years ↓ 36.6%

CURRENT MONITORING

Latest station measurement

UK-AIR

No active UK-AIR monitoring station is currently mapped to this council.

HEALTH IMPACT

Particulate air pollution

5.3% of mortality attributable to particulate air pollution

2024 Not compared

This OHID measure estimates the mortality burden associated with particulate air pollution. It is a health-impact measure, not a pollution concentration.

Annual PM2.5 is Defra Pollution Climate Mapping data. Monitoring readings are station-specific UK-AIR measurements and may be provisional. Defra source