Bessemer vs Homewood

A side-by-side comparison of Bessemer and Homewood: population, income, housing, and more.

Bessemer and Homewood are places in Alabama. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Homewood has the higher population (27,697 vs 25,655 in Bessemer). Homewood has the higher median household income ($108,386 vs $37,844 in Bessemer). Homewood has the higher median home value ($502,300 vs $129,800 in Bessemer).

Population, income & housing

	Bessemer	Homewood
Population	25,655	27,697
Median age	42.8 yrs	29.4 yrs
Median household income	$37,844	$108,386
Median home value	$129,800	$502,300
Median gross rent	$922	$1,457
Housing units	12,612	10,744
Homeownership rate	55.1%	64.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher	14.4%	69.9%
Unemployment rate	8.8%	2.1%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Bessemer	Homewood
Population	26,680 → 25,655 (-3.8%)	25,534 → 27,697 (+8.5%)
Median household income	$32,301 → $37,844 (+17.2%)	$84,157 → $108,386 (+28.8%)
Median home value	$86,500 → $129,800 (+50.1%)	$347,800 → $502,300 (+44.4%)
Median gross rent	$743 → $922 (+24.1%)	$1,112 → $1,457 (+31.0%)

Bessemer

Population

26,68025,655

Median household income

$32,301$37,844

Median home value

$86,500$129,800

Median gross rent

$743$922

Homewood

Population

25,53427,697

Median household income

$84,157$108,386

Median home value

$347,800$502,300

Median gross rent

$1,112$1,457

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Bessemer	Homewood
Under 5	7.0%	8.1%
5 to 17	13.8%	17.8%
18 to 24	9.1%	18.1%
25 to 34	11.1%	13.1%
35 to 44	10.6%	14.7%
45 to 54	11.6%	9.7%
55 to 64	15.2%	7.4%
65 to 74	12.8%	6.2%
75 and over	8.9%	4.9%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Bessemer	Homewood
White (non-Hispanic)	18.5%	72.3%
Black or African American	70.6%	13.1%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.1%
Asian	0.2%	3.3%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.6%
Two or more races	2.6%	3.0%
Hispanic or Latino	8.2%	7.6%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Bessemer	Homewood
No high school diploma	13.1%	3.9%
High school graduate	40.0%	9.8%
Some college or associate's	32.4%	16.3%
Bachelor's degree	9.3%	37.4%
Graduate or professional degree	5.1%	32.6%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Bessemer	Homewood
Drove alone	76.5%	77.3%
Carpooled	9.5%	7.7%
Public transit	1.3%	0.2%
Walked	2.2%	2.5%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.1%
Worked from home	9.6%	11.9%
Other means	1.0%	0.4%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Bessemer	Homewood
1-unit, detached	72.7%	57.7%
1-unit, attached	3.6%	2.2%
2 to 4 units	9.8%	7.2%
5 to 19 units	7.1%	21.3%
20 or more units	4.4%	11.1%
Mobile home & other	2.5%	0.6%

Poverty & households

	Bessemer	Homewood
Poverty rate	30.7%	8.1%
Average household size	2.36	2.60
Mean commute (minutes)	26	17
Median year structure built	1963	1970