Bessemer vs Wakefield

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

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

Wakefield has the higher population (1,789 vs 1,778 in Bessemer). Bessemer has the higher median household income ($50,792 vs $48,413 in Wakefield). Bessemer has the higher median home value ($76,100 vs $71,400 in Wakefield).

Population, income & housing

	Bessemer	Wakefield
Population	1,778	1,789
Median age	50.2 yrs	45.0 yrs
Median household income	$50,792	$48,413
Median home value	$76,100	$71,400
Median gross rent	$504	$662
Housing units	1,155	975
Homeownership rate	75.4%	82.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher	19.9%	15.2%
Unemployment rate	4.1%	2.8%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Bessemer	Wakefield
Population	1,812 → 1,778 (-1.9%)	1,529 → 1,789 (+17.0%)
Median household income	$35,469 → $50,792 (+43.2%)	$36,056 → $48,413 (+34.3%)
Median home value	$55,900 → $76,100 (+36.1%)	$56,900 → $71,400 (+25.5%)
Median gross rent	$395 → $504 (+27.6%)	$552 → $662 (+19.9%)

Bessemer

Population

1,8121,778

Median household income

$35,469$50,792

Median home value

$55,900$76,100

Median gross rent

$395$504

Wakefield

Population

1,5291,789

Median household income

$36,056$48,413

Median home value

$56,900$71,400

Median gross rent

$552$662

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Bessemer	Wakefield
Under 5	2.9%	9.2%
5 to 17	12.3%	10.5%
18 to 24	11.5%	5.0%
25 to 34	8.8%	12.5%
35 to 44	8.9%	12.9%
45 to 54	14.0%	10.2%
55 to 64	21.0%	16.4%
65 to 74	14.3%	13.1%
75 and over	6.2%	10.5%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Bessemer	Wakefield
White (non-Hispanic)	90.6%	94.3%
Black or African American	0.4%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	2.2%	0.4%
Asian	1.3%	0.8%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	2.7%	3.6%
Hispanic or Latino	2.9%	0.9%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Bessemer	Wakefield
No high school diploma	3.1%	2.1%
High school graduate	34.8%	36.4%
Some college or associate's	42.2%	46.3%
Bachelor's degree	13.9%	10.6%
Graduate or professional degree	6.0%	4.6%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Bessemer	Wakefield
Drove alone	80.6%	77.8%
Carpooled	0.6%	15.2%
Public transit	0.4%	0.0%
Walked	4.4%	3.1%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	13.9%	3.1%
Other means	0.0%	0.8%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Bessemer	Wakefield
1-unit, detached	82.8%	90.5%
1-unit, attached	0.5%	0.5%
2 to 4 units	7.3%	3.5%
5 to 19 units	4.9%	2.3%
20 or more units	1.9%	1.9%
Mobile home & other	2.6%	1.3%

Poverty & households

	Bessemer	Wakefield
Poverty rate	15.4%	22.0%
Average household size	2.06	2.21
Mean commute (minutes)	16	23
Median year structure built	1941	1944