Bessemer vs Hoover

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

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

Hoover has the higher population (92,401 vs 25,655 in Bessemer). Hoover has the higher median household income ($107,822 vs $37,844 in Bessemer). Hoover has the higher median home value ($391,300 vs $129,800 in Bessemer).

Population, income & housing

	Bessemer	Hoover
Population	25,655	92,401
Median age	42.8 yrs	38.3 yrs
Median household income	$37,844	$107,822
Median home value	$129,800	$391,300
Median gross rent	$922	$1,404
Housing units	12,612	39,090
Homeownership rate	55.1%	71.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher	14.4%	60.8%
Unemployment rate	8.8%	4.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Bessemer	Hoover
Population	26,680 → 25,655 (-3.8%)	85,175 → 92,401 (+8.5%)
Median household income	$32,301 → $37,844 (+17.2%)	$89,452 → $107,822 (+20.5%)
Median home value	$86,500 → $129,800 (+50.1%)	$291,000 → $391,300 (+34.5%)
Median gross rent	$743 → $922 (+24.1%)	$1,123 → $1,404 (+25.0%)

Bessemer

Population

26,68025,655

Median household income

$32,301$37,844

Median home value

$86,500$129,800

Median gross rent

$743$922

Hoover

Population

85,17592,401

Median household income

$89,452$107,822

Median home value

$291,000$391,300

Median gross rent

$1,123$1,404

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Bessemer	Hoover
Under 5	7.0%	7.2%
5 to 17	13.8%	17.0%
18 to 24	9.1%	7.0%
25 to 34	11.1%	13.8%
35 to 44	10.6%	14.4%
45 to 54	11.6%	12.8%
55 to 64	15.2%	11.8%
65 to 74	12.8%	9.0%
75 and over	8.9%	7.1%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Bessemer	Hoover
White (non-Hispanic)	18.5%	67.3%
Black or African American	70.6%	19.5%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.2%
Asian	0.2%	5.8%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.3%
Two or more races	2.6%	2.0%
Hispanic or Latino	8.2%	5.1%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Bessemer	Hoover
No high school diploma	13.1%	3.6%
High school graduate	40.0%	11.4%
Some college or associate's	32.4%	24.2%
Bachelor's degree	9.3%	34.8%
Graduate or professional degree	5.1%	26.0%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Bessemer	Hoover
Drove alone	76.5%	78.0%
Carpooled	9.5%	6.6%
Public transit	1.3%	0.0%
Walked	2.2%	0.5%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	9.6%	13.9%
Other means	1.0%	0.9%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Bessemer	Hoover
1-unit, detached	72.7%	67.1%
1-unit, attached	3.6%	4.1%
2 to 4 units	9.8%	2.7%
5 to 19 units	7.1%	18.6%
20 or more units	4.4%	7.5%
Mobile home & other	2.5%	0.1%

Poverty & households

	Bessemer	Hoover
Poverty rate	30.7%	5.3%
Average household size	2.36	2.52
Mean commute (minutes)	26	25
Median year structure built	1963	1994