Borough of Bedford

Bedford Borough of Bedford
Borough and unitary authority
From left to right Top:Bedford Bridge with St Paul's Church and Shire Hall Middle: Kempston Church End and St Peter Church in Sharnbrook Bottom: The gatehouse to Turvey House in Turvey and the Wixams new settlement.
Coat of arms of Bedford Borough Council
Bedford shown within Bedfordshire
Coordinates: 52°8′0″N 0°27′0″W / 52.13333°N 0.45000°W / 52.13333; -0.45000
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Country	England
Region	East of England
Ceremonial county	Bedfordshire
Administrative HQ	Borough Hall, Bedford
Government
• Type	Unitary Authority
• Governing body	Bedford Borough Council
• MPs	Richard Fuller (C) Alistair Strathern (L) Mohammad Yasin (L)
Area
• Total	476 km2 (184 sq mi)
Population  (2022)[1]
• Total	187,466
• Rank	108th
• Density	393/km2 (1,020/sq mi)
Ethnicity (2021) [2]
• Ethnic groups	List 75.7% White 12.6% Asian 5.3% Black 4.6% Mixed 1.8% other
Religion (2021) [2]
• Religion	List 47.6% Christianity 34.1% no religion 11.2% other 7.1% Islam
Time zone	GMT
• Summer (DST)	British Summer Time
ONS code	00KB
NUTS 3	UKH22
ISO 3166-2	GB-BDF
Website	bedford.gov.uk

Bedford, or the Borough of Bedford, is a unitary authority area with borough status in the ceremonial county of Bedfordshire, England. The council is based in Bedford, the borough's namesake and principal settlement, which is the county town of Bedfordshire.

The Bedford built-up-area is the 71st largest in the United Kingdom and also includes Kempston and Biddenham.^[3] Away from the Bedford built-up area the borough includes a large rural area with many villages. 75% of the borough's population live in the Bedford built-up and the five large villages which surround it, which makes up slightly less than 6% of the total land area of the borough.

The borough is also the location of the Wixams new settlement, immediately south of Bedford, which received its first residents in 2009.