Cadillac, Michigan

Area Profile

10,445 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Cadillac, in Wexford County.

58out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 39% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3843rd of 3,904 published cities21
SchoolsTop 35% of 2,668 published cities63
GrowthTop 48% of 2,973 published cities52
Housing affordabilityTop 16% of 4,223 published cities97
Climate4109th of 4,223 published cities54
Physical resilienceTop 15% of 4,182 published cities87
Access4086th of 4,226 published cities48
Economic stability3763rd of 4,226 published cities34
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 5.0% and the Opportunity signal places Cadillac in the bottom 2%.

Housing is more affordable relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 20% of median household income and the median home is 2.6 times it.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published city profiles, placing Cadillac in the top 15% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
10,445
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$51,773
Bottom 26% nationally
Density
1,256/sq mi
8.3 sq mi of land
Median age
40.7
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Wexford County
Michigan
Metro area
Cadillac, MI
Nearest major airport
MBS
83 mi · Mbs Intl
Median home value
$134,300
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.0% is lower than 25% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 7.3% over the past year, to 13,614 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$3,850$51,773Bottom 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,207$28,013Bottom 30%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate18.2%Top 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute15.4 minBottom 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher22.1%Top 46%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment13,614Bottom 11%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-11.3%Bottom 1%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-7.3%Bottom 1%June 2026
Labor force14,338Bottom 11%June 2026
Labor force participation56.1%Bottom 36%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-1.1%Bottom 5%June 2026
Unemployment rate5.0%Top 25%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202452k42k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $51,773 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes city-level labor data only for places of 25,000 or more. This is the figure for Wexford County, MI, which contains this city.

45% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 48% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 15.7 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
7
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
15.7
across all schools here
Math proficiency
44.8%
Top 27% in Michigan
Reading proficiency
48.4%
Top 43% in Michigan
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Cadillac Senior High SchoolCadillac Area Public Schools90318.1
Mackinaw Trail Middle SchoolCadillac Area Public Schools68317.5
Franklin Elementary SchoolCadillac Area Public Schools56317.649%52%
Lincoln Elementary SchoolCadillac Area Public Schools48016.640%44%
Cadillac Innovation High SchoolCadillac Area Public Schools16441.0
WexfordMissaukee ISD Special EducationWexford-Missaukee ISD893.0
WexfordMissaukee ISD Career CenterWexford-Missaukee ISD0

51.9% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with rather than how the schools perform, which is why AreaProfile shows it and does not score it.

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against Michigan’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $842 takes 20% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.6 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
19.5%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.6×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$842
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$134,300
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.59Bottom 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate68.8%Bottom 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±2185,138Top 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$52$842Bottom 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$17,957$134,300Bottom 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income19.5%Top 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate11.8%Top 43%2024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →
Development Momentum
52/ 100
Top 48% of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing, measured from 2022 to 2025.

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

Population has grown 1% since 2020, reaching 10,521 in 2024.

Permitting has turned downward after moving the other way the year before.

78% of recently permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes, so new supply is concentrated in apartments and condominiums rather than detached houses.

At 2.6 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
27
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
2.6
Top 47% nationally
Year over year
+23%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
77.8%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202411k10k
Census Population Estimates Program, July 1 of each year. These annual estimates are designed for year-over-year comparison, unlike the ACS five-year figure shown as this profile's population.
Housing units permitted per year
2022202320242025289.0
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was close to 2022 (0%).

Weather & climate

4 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 80°F and January a low of 12°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 35.2 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 34, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.

0°20°40°60°80°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station CADILLAC, 2.2 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND3.9"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index48.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation35.2"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low12°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high80°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months41991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index34.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing49°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
34
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
48
90th percentile index
Days above 100
0
unhealthy for sensitive groups

A comfortable median and a bad tail are different problems. Wildfire smoke and summer ozone show up in the worst tenth of days, not in the middle of the year.

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today. Air quality is measured rather than modelled, by EPA monitors, and published by county only where a monitor sits — roughly half the counties AreaProfile publishes have one, and the rest show nothing rather than an estimate. Air masses are regional, so a county reading describes the air over a place reasonably well, but it is still the county reading.

Physical risk

87 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are strong wind.

Overall hazard risk is lower than 85% of measured US cities.

Strong windModerate

Low or minimal exposure: winter weather, landslide, cold wave, lightning, hail, inland flooding, wildfire, tornado, heat wave, ice storm, earthquake, hurricane.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. City values are the population-weighted mean of the counties the city overlaps, using AreaProfile place-to-county land-area weights. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Wexford County records 2.4 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 12.6 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 12.3 per 100,000 residents in Wexford County.

Homicide
2.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
12.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
12.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
29.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Wexford County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around Cadillac rather than Cadillac itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source for reported offences with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. What is published above under Safety is a different measurement — deaths rather than offences, from death certificates rather than police returns — and it covers no property crime at all.
Taxes
No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Full cost of living
No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings.

Access

2 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 83 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Mbs IntlMBS83 mi8,002 ft
Gerald R Ford IntlGRR94 mi10,001 ft
Oscoda/WurtsmithOSC102 mi11,801 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

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Area Score
58
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Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2019-20 school year; 2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them
ClimateU.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System
Daily Air Quality Index by county
2024 calendar yearAnnually, once a calendar year is complete

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.

ZIP codes in Cadillac

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
4960122,092$63,49858