Pontiac vs Southfield

A side-by-side comparison of Pontiac and Southfield: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Southfield has the higher population (76,025 vs 61,914 in Pontiac). Southfield has the higher median household income ($65,848 vs $42,791 in Pontiac). Southfield has the higher median home value ($226,900 vs $110,600 in Pontiac).

Population, income & housing

	Pontiac	Southfield
Population	61,914	76,025
Median age	35.5 yrs	42.1 yrs
Median household income	$42,791	$65,848
Median home value	$110,600	$226,900
Median gross rent	$1,007	$1,301
Housing units	28,276	38,014
Homeownership rate	44.2%	51.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher	16.2%	39.1%
Unemployment rate	10.6%	6.9%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Pontiac	Southfield
Population	59,955 → 61,914 (+3.3%)	73,174 → 76,025 (+3.9%)
Median household income	$33,568 → $42,791 (+27.5%)	$55,705 → $65,848 (+18.2%)
Median home value	$67,100 → $110,600 (+64.8%)	$155,700 → $226,900 (+45.7%)
Median gross rent	$815 → $1,007 (+23.6%)	$1,125 → $1,301 (+15.6%)

Pontiac

Population

59,95561,914

Median household income

$33,568$42,791

Median home value

$67,100$110,600

Median gross rent

$815$1,007

Southfield

Population

73,17476,025

Median household income

$55,705$65,848

Median home value

$155,700$226,900

Median gross rent

$1,125$1,301

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Pontiac	Southfield
Under 5	7.2%	5.6%
5 to 17	16.9%	13.0%
18 to 24	9.5%	8.6%
25 to 34	15.5%	15.0%
35 to 44	12.8%	10.3%
45 to 54	13.1%	11.9%
55 to 64	12.0%	13.9%
65 to 74	8.2%	12.7%
75 and over	4.8%	8.9%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Pontiac	Southfield
White (non-Hispanic)	22.4%	25.6%
Black or African American	46.0%	63.6%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.2%	0.1%
Asian	3.7%	2.1%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.1%
Some other race	0.7%	0.5%
Two or more races	5.2%	6.1%
Hispanic or Latino	21.7%	1.9%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Pontiac	Southfield
No high school diploma	18.4%	5.7%
High school graduate	35.0%	19.9%
Some college or associate's	30.5%	35.4%
Bachelor's degree	11.2%	20.7%
Graduate or professional degree	5.0%	18.4%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Pontiac	Southfield
Drove alone	73.2%	73.2%
Carpooled	16.3%	7.1%
Public transit	1.1%	1.6%
Walked	3.1%	1.6%
Bicycle	0.4%	0.0%
Worked from home	4.1%	15.0%
Other means	1.7%	1.4%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Pontiac	Southfield
1-unit, detached	61.0%	47.0%
1-unit, attached	4.8%	7.2%
2 to 4 units	9.6%	6.5%
5 to 19 units	12.0%	15.6%
20 or more units	10.8%	23.4%
Mobile home & other	1.8%	0.3%

Poverty & households

	Pontiac	Southfield
Poverty rate	25.6%	11.2%
Average household size	2.35	2.12
Mean commute (minutes)	22	23
Median year structure built	1960	1969