Best PlacesBradford, RI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Bradford, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Bradford ranks 14,507th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on health care access by a wide margin, and state finances rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Bradford
BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.
Bradford's strengths and weaknesses
Where Bradford ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 99% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 93% of towns
- Household income$114,459 median, better than 91% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 91% of towns
- BikingBetter than 90% of towns
Where Bradford ranks low
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 2% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 3% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 8% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,325 a month, better than only 8% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Bradford
A household needs to earn about $108,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Bradford home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $114,459, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
Where the monthly payment goes
Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses Bradford's effective rate of 0.87%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Bradford
Bradford runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Bradford.
Who works in Bradford, and how
Work in Bradford centers on manufacturing and construction. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 82%
- Work from home 13%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Bradford
The coast is about 9 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Bradford, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Bradford, month by month
Bradford sees roughly 83 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 43, with lows near 24. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 43° | 33° | 24° |
| April | 59° | 48° | 39° |
| July | 84° | 74° | 65° |
| October | 68° | 57° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Bradford
The nearest airport, Westerly State, is about 4 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Bradley International, about 61 miles away.
The best schools in and around Bradford
Schools across Bradford average a B, better than 66% of towns.
Top middle schools
- Chariho Regional Middle SchoolB · 47% proficient
- Westerly Middle SchoolC+ · 36% proficient
Top high schools
- Chariho High SchoolB+ · 56% proficient
- Westerly High SchoolC+ · 40% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Bradford school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Bradford measure by measure
Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare Bradford against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Bradford
Is Bradford a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Bradford ranks 14,507th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on health care access, population health, and high incomes, and lowest on state finances and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Bradford expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $410,760. The overall cost of living runs about 9% above the national average. Set against a $114,459 median income, cost of living beats 81% of towns.
Is Bradford safe?
Bradford is safer than 48% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $215 per resident a year.
Compare Bradford with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Bradford. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Bradford represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.
Bradford detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Bradford: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Bradford: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Bradford: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Bradford: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Bradford detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.