Bedford is the county town of the English county of Bedfordshire. It is the administrative centre for the borough of Bedford. The population of the borough is 147,911 according to the 2001 census, which shows rapid growth has taken place in the last few decades. Of this number, approximately 100,000 live in the Bedford/Kempston urban area, and the remainder in the surrounding villages.

Bedford was a market town for the surrounding agricultural region from the early Middle Ages. It is the second oldest borough in England, having been granted its borough charter in 1166 by Henry II. A number of major engineering works opened in the nineteenth century, but most of these have now closed, and the town lacks a strong driver for its economy. Nonetheless it is expanding more rapidly than most English towns, with a number of major residential developments in progress. This is partly to meet demand for dormitory housing for commuters to London and to Milton Keynes, which is about fifteen miles away.

Bedford has two railway stations:
• Bedford (Midland) is located on the Midland Main Line. It is the northernmost stop on the Thameslink rail service to London, and is also served by Midland Mainline trains. It is also the terminus of the Marston Vale Line from Bletchley.
• Bedford St Johns, is the penultimate stop on the Marston Vale line.
It was the home and prison of John Bunyan, the author of the Pilgrim's Progress. The River Great Ouse passes through the town centre, and is lined with attractive gardens known as The Embankment. Bedford is home to four public schools run by the Harpur Trust charity, endowed by Bedfordian Sir William Harpur in the sixteenth century.

Every two years, an event called "The River Festival" is held near the river in Bedford during early July. The event lasts for two days and regularly attracts about 250,000 guests. The event includes sports, funfairs and live music.

In addition to Italian migrants, Bedford has also been the recipient of significant immigration from South Asia, Poland, Greece/Cyprus and the West Indies making it one of the most ethnically diverse towns in both Britain and the European Union; as of the 2001 census the town was home to the native speakers of over 100 languages; for comparison, if metropolitan London had the same proportion of languages to population there would be almost 14000 languages spoken there, twice the 6900 languages listed in the Ethnologue.