Bessemer is a very small city located in the state of Michigan. With a population of 1,780 people and just one neighborhood, Bessemer is the 374th largest community in Michigan. Much of the housing stock in Bessemer was built prior to World War II, making it one of the older and more historic cities in the country.
Bessemer is a decidedly white-collar city, with fully 85.02% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Bessemer is a city of service providers, sales and office workers, and professionals. There are especially a lot of people living in Bessemer who work in sales jobs (15.50%), food service (11.55%), and office and administrative support (10.30%).
A relatively large number of people in Bessemer telecommute to their jobs. Overall, about 12.59% of the workforce works from home. While this may seem like a small number, as a fraction of the total workforce it ranks among the highest in the country. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes.
The city is relatively quiet, having a combination of lower population density and few of those groups of people who have a tendency to be noisy. For example, Bessemer has relatively fewer families with younger children, and/or college students. Combined, this makes Bessemer a pretty quiet place to live overall. If you like quiet, you will probably enjoy it here.
Residents of the city have the good fortune of having one of the shortest daily commutes compared to the rest of the country. On average, they spend only 16.11 minutes getting to work every day.
The citizens of Bessemer are slightly better educated than the national average of 21.84% for all cities and towns, with 22.76% of adults in Bessemer having a bachelor's degree or advanced degree.
The per capita income in Bessemer in 2022 was $30,156, which is lower middle income relative to Michigan and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $120,624 for a family of four. However, Bessemer contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
The people who call Bessemer home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Bessemer residents report their race to be White, followed by Native American. Important ancestries of people in Bessemer include Finnish, English, Italian, German, and Swedish.
The most common language spoken in Bessemer is English. Other important languages spoken here include Polish and Native American languages.
When you see a neighborhood for the first time, the most important thing is often the way it looks, like its homes and its setting. Some places look the same, but they only reveal their true character after living in them for a while because they contain a unique mix of occupational or cultural groups. This neighborhood is very unique in some important ways, according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive exploration and analysis.
Whether walking, biking, riding, or driving, the length of one's commute is an important factor for one's quality of life. The neighborhood stands out for its commute length, according to NeighborhoodScout's analysis. Residents of the neighborhood have the pleasure of having one of the shortest commutes to work of any neighborhood in America. 64.1% of the residents have a commute time from home to work (one way) of less than fifteen minutes. This is a higher proportion of residents enjoying a short trip to work than NeighborhoodScout found in 97.3% of U.S. neighborhoods. Less time commuting means more time for other things in life.
Despite all of the residential real estate here in the neighborhood, NeighborhoodScout has discovered that much of it is vacant. In resort or second-home vacation areas, this naturally occurs because homes and apartments are seasonally occupied, and empty for a portion of the year. In non-vacation or resort areas, however, this can be an indicator of property abandonment or a weak real estate market. The vacancy rate here is 30.9%, which is higher than 95.8% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
There is an especially high percentage of incarcerated people (0.8%) living in the neighborhood.
In addition, the neighborhood stands out within Michigan for its college student friendly environment. NeighborhoodScout's analysis reveals that this neighborhood is home to a number of college students, is relatively walkable, and above average in safety. In combination, this makes it stand out for a good place for college students to consider. Because a number of college students live here, this neighborhood may be close to a college campus and offer certain amenities nearby geared towards the student body. While it's not an environment for everyone, ambitious scholars can enjoy seasonal excitement between semesters and school breaks, and parents can rest easy knowing that the area has an above average safety rating. For each of these reasons, the neighborhood is rated among the top 7.2% of college-friendly places to live in MI.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Finnish and Czechoslovakian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 26.8% of this neighborhood's residents have Finnish ancestry and 3.1% have Czechoslovakian ancestry.
is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 10.8% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Polish at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 98.4% of the neighborhoods in America.
There are two complementary measures for understanding the income of a neighborhood's residents: the average and the extremes. While a neighborhood may be relatively wealthy overall, it is equally important to understand the rate of people - particularly children - who are living at or below the federal poverty line, which is extremely low income. Some neighborhoods with a lower average income may actually have a lower childhood poverty rate than another with a higher average income, and this helps us understand the conditions and character of a neighborhood.
The neighbors in the neighborhood in Bessemer are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 80.4% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 21.2% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 71.8% of U.S. neighborhoods.
What we choose to do for a living reflects who we are. Each neighborhood has a different mix of occupations represented, and together these tell you about the neighborhood and help you understand if this neighborhood may fit your lifestyle.
In the neighborhood, 32.9% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants, with 32.1% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (17.7%), and 16.1% in manufacturing and laborer occupations.
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 98.7% of households. Some people also speak Polish (10.8%).
Culture is shared learned behavior. We learn it from our parents, their parents, our houses of worship, and much of our culture – our learned behavior – comes from our ancestors. That is why ancestry and ethnicity can be so interesting and important to understand: places with concentrations of people of one or more ancestries often express those shared learned behaviors and this gives each neighborhood its own culture. Even different neighborhoods in the same city can have drastically different cultures.
In the neighborhood in Bessemer, MI, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Finnish (26.8%). There are also a number of people of English ancestry (18.2%), and residents who report Italian roots (14.1%), and some of the residents are also of German ancestry (10.7%), along with some Swedish ancestry residents (6.8%), among others.
Even if your neighborhood is walkable, you may still have to drive to your place of work. Some neighborhoods are located where many can get to work in just a few minutes, while others are located such that most residents have a long and arduous commute. The greatest number of commuters in neighborhood spend under 15 minutes commuting one-way to work (64.1% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America.
Here most residents (81.0%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.