Royal Oak vs Southfield

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

Royal Oak 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 57,880 in Royal Oak). Royal Oak has the higher median household income ($95,182 vs $65,848 in Southfield). Royal Oak has the higher median home value ($305,900 vs $226,900 in Southfield).

Population, income & housing

	Royal Oak	Southfield
Population	57,880	76,025
Median age	36.9 yrs	42.1 yrs
Median household income	$95,182	$65,848
Median home value	$305,900	$226,900
Median gross rent	$1,335	$1,301
Housing units	31,227	38,014
Homeownership rate	66.4%	51.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher	62.6%	39.1%
Unemployment rate	3.1%	6.9%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Royal Oak	Southfield
Population	59,195 → 57,880 (-2.2%)	73,174 → 76,025 (+3.9%)
Median household income	$81,665 → $95,182 (+16.6%)	$55,705 → $65,848 (+18.2%)
Median home value	$224,600 → $305,900 (+36.2%)	$155,700 → $226,900 (+45.7%)
Median gross rent	$1,079 → $1,335 (+23.7%)	$1,125 → $1,301 (+15.6%)

Royal Oak

Population

59,19557,880

Median household income

$81,665$95,182

Median home value

$224,600$305,900

Median gross rent

$1,079$1,335

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)

	Royal Oak	Southfield
Under 5	5.1%	5.6%
5 to 17	9.8%	13.0%
18 to 24	8.4%	8.6%
25 to 34	24.0%	15.0%
35 to 44	13.4%	10.3%
45 to 54	11.8%	11.9%
55 to 64	12.4%	13.9%
65 to 74	9.8%	12.7%
75 and over	5.4%	8.9%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Royal Oak	Southfield
White (non-Hispanic)	80.8%	25.6%
Black or African American	6.1%	63.6%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.1%
Asian	3.8%	2.1%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.1%
Some other race	0.5%	0.5%
Two or more races	4.0%	6.1%
Hispanic or Latino	4.7%	1.9%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Royal Oak	Southfield
No high school diploma	3.5%	5.7%
High school graduate	11.9%	19.9%
Some college or associate's	22.0%	35.4%
Bachelor's degree	38.1%	20.7%
Graduate or professional degree	24.5%	18.4%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Royal Oak	Southfield
Drove alone	69.8%	73.2%
Carpooled	3.4%	7.1%
Public transit	0.2%	1.6%
Walked	1.5%	1.6%
Bicycle	0.2%	0.0%
Worked from home	24.2%	15.0%
Other means	0.7%	1.4%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Royal Oak	Southfield
1-unit, detached	65.0%	47.0%
1-unit, attached	5.2%	7.2%
2 to 4 units	6.7%	6.5%
5 to 19 units	12.2%	15.6%
20 or more units	10.8%	23.4%
Mobile home & other	0.1%	0.3%

Poverty & households

	Royal Oak	Southfield
Poverty rate	6.0%	11.2%
Average household size	1.96	2.12
Mean commute (minutes)	24	23
Median year structure built	1956	1969