Cotton End has a population of 838, making it the 16th largest place in Bedford.
The other populations of Cotton End
The same name covers more than one area, and each has its own figure.
| What you mean | Population | Source |
|---|---|---|
| The place itself The populated settlement, roughly the built-up core. |
838 | GeoNames |
| The built-up area Continuous development, where buildings sit less than 200m apart. Drawn from where the buildings are, not where the council boundary is. |
825 | ONS Census 2021 (2021) |
Why these differ: which population figure is right? · compare with another place
Year-by-year official estimates for the wider area: Bedford population trends, 2001–2024.
Cotton End in context
Distances are straight-line from the settlement's recorded coordinates. The 10 km figure sums the recorded places within that radius, so it describes how built-up the surroundings are rather than people per square kilometre.
The centre of Cotton End sits in postcode district MK45.
Food and drink on the high street
| Registered premises | Count |
|---|---|
| Restaurants and cafés (12.1 per 10,000 residents) | 1 |
| Pubs, bars and nightclubs (12.1 per 10,000 residents) | 1 |
Counts are registered food premises in the Cotton End built-up area (825 residents at the 2021 census), from the FSA food hygiene register, extracted 17 August 2026. The boundary is drawn from where the buildings are, so these figures cover the town itself rather than the wider council area, and no total is shown because the register also lists premises nobody would call a venue: school kitchens, care homes, warehouses. Compare towns →
Crime, per 1,000 residents
| Category (police-recorded, 12 months) | Rate |
|---|---|
| Violence and sexual offences | 75.2 |
| Anti-social behaviour | 33.9 |
| Shoplifting | 1.2 |
| Criminal damage and arson | 10.9 |
| Vehicle crime | 8.5 |
| Burglary | 7.3 |
| Other theft | 7.3 |
| All recorded offences | 153.9 |
The all-offences line is a count of records, not a safety score: it weighs every category equally, which is exactly why we publish the categories. We deliberately do not combine them into a single index.
Figures are police-recorded crime (August 2025 to July 2026) located to this built-up area, per 1,000 residents at the 2021 census. Three cautions, each of which changes how a rate should be read: recorded crime is not crime experienced, because reporting rates differ by category and by place; the denominator counts residents, so town centres and visitor towns run high per resident precisely because many people there are not residents; and a high figure can reflect more reporting as easily as more crime. Percentiles compare towns of 10,000+ residents. Greater Manchester and Gloucestershire constabularies do not publish, so their towns show a note instead of a partial figure. Compare towns →
Schools
| Open establishments | Schools | Places | Pupils | Filled |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Primary schools | 1 | 630 | 435 | 69.0% |
The 2021 census counted 53 children aged 5 to 9 in the town: one state primary school for every 53 of them.
Open schools registered in the Cotton End built-up area, from the Department for Education's Get Information about Schools register, extracted 24 August 2026. Each school counts once: an independent special school appears under special schools, and the phase rows are state schools. Places are reported capacity and pupils each school's latest census return, summed only over schools reporting both, and shown only where at least 9 in 10 of a phase's schools do; state primaries across measured towns run at 89.2% of capacity, secondaries 91.3%. The children-per-school figure pairs a 2021 census count with today's register, so growth or decline since the census is not in it. No inspection grades are shown because Ofsted stopped issuing single-word overall judgements in 2024 and the register no longer carries them; current inspection reports are on Ofsted's own site. England only: the register lists Welsh schools without phase detail.
Broadband
| Availability | % of homes |
|---|---|
| Gigabit-capable (1,000 Mbit/s+) | 65.7% |
| Superfast (30 Mbit/s+) | 99.5% |
Share of the 364 residential premises in this built-up area that the fixed network can serve at each speed, from Ofcom's Connected Nations coverage data (network state July 2025). Availability is what the line to a home can deliver if ordered, not what households actually subscribe to, and a full-fibre street where everyone bought the cheapest package shows 100% here. Percentile compares towns of 10,000+ residents. Compare towns →
Go deeper
Nearby in Bedford
| # | Place | Population |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stewartby | 1,190 |
| 2 | Turvey | 940 |
| 3 | Carlton | 874 |
| 4 | Milton Ernest | 761 |
| 5 | Willington | 751 |
| 6 | Cople | 722 |