Bessemer vs Ironwood

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

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

Ironwood has the higher population (5,004 vs 1,778 in Bessemer). Bessemer has the higher median household income ($50,792 vs $37,191 in Ironwood). Bessemer has the higher median home value ($76,100 vs $74,900 in Ironwood).

Population, income & housing

	Bessemer	Ironwood
Population	1,778	5,004
Median age	50.2 yrs	50.4 yrs
Median household income	$50,792	$37,191
Median home value	$76,100	$74,900
Median gross rent	$504	$555
Housing units	1,155	3,072
Homeownership rate	75.4%	72.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher	19.9%	19.5%
Unemployment rate	4.1%	12.7%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Bessemer	Ironwood
Population	1,812 → 1,778 (-1.9%)	4,955 → 5,004 (+1.0%)
Median household income	$35,469 → $50,792 (+43.2%)	$31,351 → $37,191 (+18.6%)
Median home value	$55,900 → $76,100 (+36.1%)	$47,000 → $74,900 (+59.4%)
Median gross rent	$395 → $504 (+27.6%)	$510 → $555 (+8.8%)

Bessemer

Population

1,8121,778

Median household income

$35,469$50,792

Median home value

$55,900$76,100

Median gross rent

$395$504

Ironwood

Population

4,9555,004

Median household income

$31,351$37,191

Median home value

$47,000$74,900

Median gross rent

$510$555

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Bessemer	Ironwood
Under 5	2.9%	2.5%
5 to 17	12.3%	11.9%
18 to 24	11.5%	5.0%
25 to 34	8.8%	12.5%
35 to 44	8.9%	12.8%
45 to 54	14.0%	11.3%
55 to 64	21.0%	15.3%
65 to 74	14.3%	13.0%
75 and over	6.2%	15.7%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Bessemer	Ironwood
White (non-Hispanic)	90.6%	93.5%
Black or African American	0.4%	0.5%
American Indian & Alaska Native	2.2%	0.8%
Asian	1.3%	0.7%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.4%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	2.7%	1.6%
Hispanic or Latino	2.9%	2.5%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Bessemer	Ironwood
No high school diploma	3.1%	6.5%
High school graduate	34.8%	33.9%
Some college or associate's	42.2%	40.0%
Bachelor's degree	13.9%	11.7%
Graduate or professional degree	6.0%	7.8%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Bessemer	Ironwood
Drove alone	80.6%	83.9%
Carpooled	0.6%	5.1%
Public transit	0.4%	0.6%
Walked	4.4%	1.7%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.5%
Worked from home	13.9%	6.9%
Other means	0.0%	1.3%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Bessemer	Ironwood
1-unit, detached	82.8%	82.7%
1-unit, attached	0.5%	0.3%
2 to 4 units	7.3%	7.3%
5 to 19 units	4.9%	6.1%
20 or more units	1.9%	3.7%
Mobile home & other	2.6%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Bessemer	Ironwood
Poverty rate	15.4%	14.9%
Average household size	2.06	1.82
Mean commute (minutes)	16	19
Median year structure built	1941	1938