Ingham County, MI

County Profile

283,913 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Ingham 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.

64out of 100
Area Score
Top 44% of 1,225 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity1129th of 1,255 counties measured32
SchoolsTop 27% of 973 counties measured69
Growth738th of 1,226 counties measured44
Housing affordabilityTop 42% of 1,255 counties measured95
Climate924th of 1,254 counties measured61
Physical resilienceTop 13% of 1,255 counties measured86
AccessTop 13% of 1,255 counties measured95
Economic stability650th of 1,255 counties measured61
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published profiles: unemployment is 4.9% and the Opportunity signal places Ingham County in the bottom 10%.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published profiles, placing Ingham County in the top 13% for physical resilience.

A major airport is 16 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
283,913
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$65,526
Top 49% nationally
Density
511/sq mi
556.1 sq mi of land
Median age
33.3
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Ingham County
Michigan
Metro area
Lansing-East Lansing, MI
Nearest major airport
LAN
16 mi · Capital Region Intl
Median home value
$198,800
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.9% is lower than 25% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 8.1% over the past year, to 133,549 employed residents.

41% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 92% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$1,674$65,526Top 49%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$882$37,723Top 35%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate16.7%Top 30%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute22.2 minBottom 26%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher41.2%Top 8%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Employment133,549Top 20%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-7.1%Bottom 2%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-8.1%Bottom 1%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force140,365Top 20%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force participation64.2%Top 22%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.6%Bottom 13%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate4.9%Top 25%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/066.43.2
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 4.9% 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
202120222023202466k58k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $65,526 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.

42% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 58% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 16.6 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
84
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
16.6
across all schools here
Math proficiency
41.9%
Top 22% in Michigan
Reading proficiency
57.6%
Top 19% in Michigan
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Holt Senior High SchoolHolt Public Schools1,52918.6
Okemos High SchoolOkemos Public Schools1,49619.2
East Lansing High SchoolEast Lansing School District1,23122.0
Everett High SchoolLansing Public School District1,01719.9
Mason High SchoolMason Public Schools (Ingham)1,01516.1
Gardner International SchoolLansing Public School District87416.2
MacDonald Middle SchoolEast Lansing School District85719.952%87%
Eastern High SchoolLansing Public School District79819.9
Mason Middle SchoolMason Public Schools (Ingham)77815.062%82%
Haslett High SchoolHaslett Public Schools77419.8
Kinawa SchoolOkemos Public Schools73516.042%72%
Chippewa Middle SchoolOkemos Public Schools72616.567%87%

46.7% 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 $1,084 takes 20% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.0 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
19.9%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.0×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,084
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$198,800
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income3.03Top 47%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate59.5%Bottom 6%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±207126,232Top 8%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$16$1,084Top 24%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$5,013$198,800Top 44%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income19.9%Top 22%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate7.2%Bottom 15%of 3,2222024 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
44/ 100
Ranks 738 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 grown 2% since 2020, reaching 290,427 in 2024.

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

Population is still rising, but more slowly than in the preceding year.

67% 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 2.1 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
600
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
2.1
Bottom 37% nationally
Year over year
+34%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
66.8%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
20202021202220232024290k272k
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
2022202320242025637350
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2022 (−9%).

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.

Air quality measures a median index of 39, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.

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, 16.1 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND3.8"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index57.02024 calendar year
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
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index39.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing48°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
39
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
57
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

86 / 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: cold wave, inland flooding, ice storm, winter weather, lightning, earthquake, landslide, 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.

Ingham County records 2.5 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 9.8 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 20.4 per 100,000 residents in Ingham County.

Homicide
2.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
9.8
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
20.4
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
13.4
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 Ingham 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 Ingham County rather than Ingham 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
Offences reported to police are published by department rather than by town, and only where a department reported every month of the year. No municipal department reports for this place — many smaller communities are policed by the county — so there is no figure to show. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.
Taxes and full cost of living
No public source publishes either with national coverage and a method open enough to check. 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. Nothing here is individualised tax advice.
Anything about a specific address
Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house. School attendance zones, insurance pricing and the character of a neighbourhood all vary within the places measured here.

Access

6 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 16 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Capital Region IntlLAN16 mi8,506 ft
Battle Creek Exec At Kellogg FldBTL49 mi10,004 ft
Detroit Metro Wayne CountyDTW59 mi12,003 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
64
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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.