49601Cadillac, Michigan

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 49601.

58out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 44% of 5,298 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity5956th of 6,210 published ZIP areas24
SchoolsTop 35% of 4,422 published ZIP areas63
Growth2786th of 5,428 published ZIP areas50
Housing affordabilityTop 9% of 6,685 published ZIP areas100
Climate6623rd of 6,789 published ZIP areas54
Physical resilienceTop 14% of 6,709 published ZIP areas87
Access6631st of 6,791 published ZIP areas45
Economic stability5768th of 6,742 published ZIP areas36
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published ZIP profiles: unemployment is 5.0% and the Opportunity signal places 49601 in the bottom 4%.

Housing is more affordable relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 17% of median household income and the median home is 2.7 times it.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published ZIP profiles, placing 49601 in the top 14% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
22,092
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$63,498
Bottom 36% nationally
Density
100/sq mi
220.0 sq mi of land
Median age
43.4
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Cadillac
Michigan
Metro area
Cadillac, MI
Nearest major airport
MBS
88 mi · Mbs Intl
Median home value
$174,000
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.0% is lower than 28% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

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

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$5,275$63,498Bottom 36%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,656$34,417Bottom 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate13.3%Top 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute20.6 minBottom 15%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher24.6%Top 46%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment13,614Bottom 8%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 8%June 2026
Labor force participation56.0%Bottom 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-1.1%Bottom 6%June 2026
Unemployment rate5.0%Top 28%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202466k57k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $63,498 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 does not publish labor-force data for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Cadillac, MI, the city containing this ZIP code.

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 26% in Michigan
Reading proficiency
48.4%
Top 44% 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 $887 takes 17% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.7 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
16.8%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.7×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$887
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$174,000
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.74Bottom 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate78.8%Top 50%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±20510,752Top 15%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$46$887Bottom 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$10,269$174,000Bottom 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income16.8%Bottom 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate15.8%Top 36%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
50/ 100
Ranks 2786 of 5,428 published city profiles

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.

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 below the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
27
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
2.6
Bottom 47% nationally
Year over year
+23%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
77.8%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Cadillac, MI, the city containing this ZIP code.

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, 7.3 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 ZIP areas.

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. ZIP values are the land-area-weighted mean of the counties the ZIP Code Tabulation Area intersects. Expected annual loss is not allocated below county level. 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, lower than most 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 49601 rather than 49601 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 88 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Mbs IntlMBS88 mi8,002 ft
Gerald R Ford IntlGRR94 mi10,001 ft
Oscoda/WurtsmithOSC107 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.

Customize your score

What matters to you?

Choose what you weight most heavily. Nothing is saved to an account — your preferences stay in this browser, and the Area Score never changes.

Area Score
58
Your Score

Select one or more priorities to see how this location scores against them.

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.

49601 vs Cadillac

How this ZIP area compares with Cadillac as a whole. Both figures come from the same ACS release, so the comparison is like for like.

49601
Cadillac
Median household income
$63,498
vs
$51,773
Per capita income
$34,417
vs
$28,013
Population density
100/sq mi
vs
1,256/sq mi
Median home value
$174,000
vs
$134,300
Median gross rent
$887
vs
$842
Homeownership rate
78.8%
vs
68.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher
24.6%
vs
22.1%
Poverty rate
13.3%
vs
18.2%
Median age
43.4
vs
40.7

Some demographic statistics use Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, which approximate but do not exactly match USPS ZIP delivery geography. See the methodology for how AreaProfile maps between them.