Eaton County, MI

County Profile

109,130 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Eaton County, MI.

Several figures AreaProfile publishes are measured by county and nowhere finer — death rates by intent among them. On this page those describe the geography they are printed on, which is not true of the city and ZIP pages that inherit them.

61out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 47% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity969th of 1,255 counties41
Schools566th of 973 counties44
Growth1135th of 1,226 counties23
Housing affordabilityTop 22% of 1,255 counties100
Climate924th of 1,254 counties61
Physical resilienceTop 15% of 1,255 counties84
AccessTop 18% of 1,255 counties94
Economic stabilityTop 15% of 1,255 counties85
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published profiles: unemployment is 4.4% and the Opportunity signal places Eaton County in the bottom 23%.

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

A major airport is 19 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
109,130
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$79,597
Top 19% nationally
Density
190/sq mi
575.2 sq mi of land
Median age
41.4
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Eaton County
Michigan
Metro area
Lansing-East Lansing, MI
Nearest major airport
LAN
19 mi · Capital Region Intl
Median home value
$216,900
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.4% is lower than 42% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 8.1% over the past year, to 50,148 employed residents.

31% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 78% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$2,067$79,597Top 19%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,057$41,090Top 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate8.3%Bottom 13%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute24.4 minBottom 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher30.8%Top 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment50,148Top 44%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-7.6%Bottom 2%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-8.1%Bottom 1%June 2026
Labor force52,435Top 44%June 2026
Labor force participation63.6%Top 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.6%Bottom 13%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.4%Top 42%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/065.93.1
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 4.4% in June 2026. A break in the line is a month the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish for this area — it is left empty rather than estimated.
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202480k72k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $79,597 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.
Largest occupations — Lansing-East Lansing, MI
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators6,170$55,120
Office Clerks, General4,830$45,830
Fast Food and Counter Workers4,810$28,640
Retail Salespersons4,750$33,840
General and Operations Managers4,470$119,140
Business Operations Specialists, All Other4,360$82,940

Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

32% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 47% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 17.2 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
45
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
17.2
across all schools here
Math proficiency
31.9%
Top 50% in Michigan
Reading proficiency
47.4%
Top 50% in Michigan
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Grand Ledge High SchoolGrand Ledge Public Schools1,70420.0
Waverly Senior High SchoolWaverly Community Schools98721.5
Kenneth T Beagle Middle SchoolGrand Ledge Public Schools83519.442%72%
Leon W Hayes Intermediate SchoolGrand Ledge Public Schools81018.0
Charlotte Senior High SchoolCharlotte Public Schools64418.9
Eaton Rapids High SchoolEaton Rapids Public Schools63718.7
Willow Ridge Elementary SchoolGrand Ledge Public Schools54219.440%62%
Delta Center Elementary SchoolGrand Ledge Public Schools52817.638%47%
Charlotte Upper Elementary SchoolCharlotte Public Schools52719.532%43%
TC Holbrook Elementary SchoolGrand Ledge Public Schools50616.933%39%
Olivet Middle SchoolOlivet Community Schools46117.743%60%
Waverly Middle SchoolWaverly Community Schools45118.030%90%

40.0% 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 $1,092 takes 16% 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
16.5%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.7×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,092
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$216,900
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.72Bottom 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate74.2%Bottom 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±6947,753Top 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$26$1,092Top 23%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$4,419$216,900Top 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income16.5%Bottom 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate4.9%Bottom 5%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
23/ 100
Ranks 1135 of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing, 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 been broadly flat since 2020, at 109,494 in 2024.

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

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 1.0 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
111
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
1.0
Bottom 15% nationally
Year over year
−3%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
20202021202220232024109k109k
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
202220232024202520098
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2022 (−42%).

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 83°F and January a low of 17°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 33.3 inches, including 50.2 inches of snow.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station LANSING CAPITAL CITY AP, 18.9 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND3.8"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation33.3"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall50.2"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low17°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high83°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing48°F1991-2020 Normals

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.

Physical risk

84 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Strong windHigh
TornadoElevated
HailModerate
Heat waveModerate

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

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA National Risk Index county record. 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.

Eaton County records 2.7 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 12.9 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 17.5 per 100,000 residents in Eaton County.

Homicide
2.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
12.9
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
17.5
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
16.5
per 100,000 residents

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 Eaton 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 Eaton County rather than Eaton County 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

7 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 19 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Capital Region IntlLAN19 mi8,506 ft
Battle Creek Exec At Kellogg FldBTL28 mi10,004 ft
Gerald R Ford IntlGRR40 mi10,001 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
61
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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

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.

Cities in Eaton County, MI