This is a small community in a single neighborhood.
As throughout the site, some neighborhood-level data are reserved for subscribers.
What do we mean by a neighborhood?
NeighborhoodScout® uses the official government designation for neighborhoods - the census tract.
Census tracts are small, relatively permanent subdivisions of a county that are defined by the U.S. Census Bureau in conjunction with local authorities all across the country to define real neighborhoods that are bounded to contain areas with homogeneous population characteristics (including economic status, lifestyle, and living conditions). Census tracts usually have 4,000 persons, but can range between 1,500 and 8,000 persons. This is the most fine-grained area for which detailed information is made available from the government, to protect the individual privacy of each of us. Because census tracts are based on population, they vary in size depending on the density of settlement. In urban areas, they are small, and in rural areas they can cover an entire small town or even a few small towns in very rural areas.
Since census tracts are subdivisions of a county, we did a spatial overlay of the census tracts onto city and town boundaries using a geographic information system to properly assign each census tract to its appropriate city or town. Then we named each census tract to the local colloquially recognized neighborhood name for that spot (e.g., Boston, MA (Dorchester). If there was not a name available, we named the census tract by the largest street intersection in the census tract (e.g., Worcester, MA (Lincoln St/Plantation St)
Why we don't use Zip Codes as neighborhoods
Zip codes were developed by the Postal Service for the purpose of delivering mail, but were never intended to define coherent neighborhoods. In addition, Zip Codes can have as many as 10 distinctly different census tracts contained within them. When distinct census tracts are blended together in a single Zip Code, the data reflects their average conditions and often gives a false sense of the area. The result is that potentially great matching neighborhoods can be missed, and erroneous matches can also be produced and delivered to you.
Using census tracts makes great matches possible, and helps people find the areas that are best for them and their families. Because we are committed to providing the highest possible quality and finding the neighborhoods that best meet your criteria, we use census tracts. And, as always, we show you the actual street map of the neighborhood so you know exactly where your best matching neighborhood is located.
What is a Condition Alert?
A condition alert is a condition in the neighborhood that triggers an alert. NeighborhoodScout contains condition alerts to highlight conditions that are extreme, whether good or bad. This helps answer crucial questions about the state of the neighborhood being evaluated, such as:
What are the risks of violent crime here?
Is the risk of home break-ins or other property crimes increasing?
Does real estate here hold its value?
Are the trends in local vacancies or unemployment concerning?
...and dozens more.
Information at a glance that you need to know to invest, appraise or finance a property.
Bessemer is a very small city located in the state of Michigan. With a population of 1,779 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.
Occupations and Workforce
Bessemer is a decidedly white-collar city, with fully 85.65% 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 managers. There are especially a lot of people living in Bessemer who work in sales jobs (14.14%), office and administrative support (13.50%), and business and financial occupations (12.87%).
One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their home: 13.92% of the workforce. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce this is high compared to the rest of the county. 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.
Setting & Lifestyle
It is a fairly quiet city because there are relatively few of those groups of people who have a tendency to be noisy. (Children, for example, often can't help themselves from being noisy, and being parents ourselves, we know!) Bessemer has relatively few families with children living at home, and is quieter because of it. Renters and college students, for their own reasons, can also be noisy. Bessemer has few renters and college students. But the biggest reason it is quieter in Bessemer than in most places in America, is that there are just simply fewer people living here. If you think trees make good neighbors, Bessemer may be for you.
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 16.33 minutes getting to work every day.
Demographics
The education level of Bessemer citizens, measured as those with bachelor's degrees or advanced degrees, is similar to the national average for all American cities and towns. 19.86% of adults 25 and older in Bessemer have a college degree.
The per capita income in Bessemer in 2022 was $28,189, which is lower middle income relative to Michigan and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $112,756 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.
Notable & Unique Neighborhood Characteristics
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.
Real Estate
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 30.8%, which is higher than 95.4% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
People
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 7.8% of college-friendly places to live in MI.
Diversity
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, 25.6% of this neighborhood's residents have Finnish ancestry and 2.8% 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.
The Neighbors
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 81.9% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 14.0% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 59.0% 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, 31.8% 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 28.9% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (21.6%), and 17.0% in manufacturing and laborer occupations.
Languages
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 98.7% of households. Some people also speak Polish (10.8%).
Ethnicity / Ancestry
Culture is the shared learned behavior of peoples. Undeniably, different ethnicities and ancestries have different cultural traditions, and as a result, neighborhoods with concentrations of residents of one or another ethnicities or ancestries will express those cultures. It is what makes the North End in Boston so fun to visit for the Italian restaurants, bakeries, culture, and charm, and similarly, why people enjoy visiting Chinatown in San Francisco.
In the neighborhood in Bessemer, MI, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Finnish (25.6%). There are also a number of people of English ancestry (17.0%), and residents who report Italian roots (11.7%), and some of the residents are also of German ancestry (10.8%), along with some Swedish ancestry residents (6.3%), among others.
Getting to Work
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 (56.4% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America.
Here most residents (78.1%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also carpool with coworkers, friends, or neighbors to get to work (6.2%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.
SCOUT’s patented match algorithm identifies the most similar neighborhoods to a subject location, and quantifies the similarity to the subject location. This allows analysts to identify the most similar neighborhoods in a local market area for appraisals, investments, and research.
The algorithm uses 273 neighborhood conditions, identifies the dominant dimensions underlying the conditions and calculates the similarity. This captures the true culture and character of locations, economic conditions, and trends.
The closer to 100% means the locations are nearly identical. 80% is a very good, but not excellent match, and so forth.
