Bessemer vs Mountain Brook

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

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

Bessemer has the higher population (25,655 vs 22,160 in Mountain Brook). Mountain Brook has the higher median household income ($191,128 vs $37,844 in Bessemer). Mountain Brook has the higher median home value ($891,300 vs $129,800 in Bessemer).

Population, income & housing

	Bessemer	Mountain Brook
Population	25,655	22,160
Median age	42.8 yrs	41.5 yrs
Median household income	$37,844	$191,128
Median home value	$129,800	$891,300
Median gross rent	$922	$1,444
Housing units	12,612	8,819
Homeownership rate	55.1%	89.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher	14.4%	88.4%
Unemployment rate	8.8%	1.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Bessemer	Mountain Brook
Population	26,680 → 25,655 (-3.8%)	20,436 → 22,160 (+8.4%)
Median household income	$32,301 → $37,844 (+17.2%)	$152,355 → $191,128 (+25.4%)
Median home value	$86,500 → $129,800 (+50.1%)	$628,800 → $891,300 (+41.7%)
Median gross rent	$743 → $922 (+24.1%)	$1,561 → $1,444 (-7.5%)

Bessemer

Population

26,68025,655

Median household income

$32,301$37,844

Median home value

$86,500$129,800

Median gross rent

$743$922

Mountain Brook

Population

20,43622,160

Median household income

$152,355$191,128

Median home value

$628,800$891,300

Median gross rent

$1,561$1,444

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Bessemer	Mountain Brook
Under 5	7.0%	7.4%
5 to 17	13.8%	22.5%
18 to 24	9.1%	3.7%
25 to 34	11.1%	7.2%
35 to 44	10.6%	13.9%
45 to 54	11.6%	16.0%
55 to 64	15.2%	12.4%
65 to 74	12.8%	11.0%
75 and over	8.9%	5.9%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Bessemer	Mountain Brook
White (non-Hispanic)	18.5%	96.3%
Black or African American	70.6%	0.4%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.1%
Asian	0.2%	0.8%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.2%
Two or more races	2.6%	1.4%
Hispanic or Latino	8.2%	0.8%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Bessemer	Mountain Brook
No high school diploma	13.1%	0.3%
High school graduate	40.0%	2.6%
Some college or associate's	32.4%	8.7%
Bachelor's degree	9.3%	50.2%
Graduate or professional degree	5.1%	38.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Bessemer	Mountain Brook
Drove alone	76.5%	80.2%
Carpooled	9.5%	2.8%
Public transit	1.3%	0.0%
Walked	2.2%	0.2%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.3%
Worked from home	9.6%	16.5%
Other means	1.0%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Bessemer	Mountain Brook
1-unit, detached	72.7%	83.8%
1-unit, attached	3.6%	2.9%
2 to 4 units	9.8%	5.4%
5 to 19 units	7.1%	3.1%
20 or more units	4.4%	4.6%
Mobile home & other	2.5%	0.1%

Poverty & households

	Bessemer	Mountain Brook
Poverty rate	30.7%	2.7%
Average household size	2.36	2.66
Mean commute (minutes)	26	18
Median year structure built	1963	1965