Macomb County, MI

County Profile

879,853 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Macomb 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.

65out of 100
Area Score
Top 39% of 1,225 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity666th of 1,255 counties measured54
Schools719th of 973 counties measured32
GrowthTop 43% of 1,226 counties measured54
Housing affordabilityTop 36% of 1,255 counties measured97
Climate901st of 1,254 counties measured62
Physical resilienceTop 19% of 1,255 counties measured82
Access681st of 1,255 counties measured80
Economic stabilityTop 22% of 1,255 counties measured80
The quick read

Unemployment is 5.3% and median household income $77,837, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published profiles.

In the public schools here, 31% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 17.5 students for every teacher.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published profiles, placing Macomb County in the top 19% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
879,853
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$77,837
Top 21% nationally
Density
1,836/sq mi
479.4 sq mi of land
Median age
41.3
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Macomb County
Michigan
Metro area
Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI
Nearest major airport
DTW
39 mi · Detroit Metro Wayne County
Median home value
$243,900
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.3% is lower than 15% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment grew 1.2% over the past year, to 432,247 employed residents.

28% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 71% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$1,037$77,837Top 21%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$512$40,619Top 24%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate10.4%Bottom 27%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute28.2 minTop 33%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher27.7%Top 29%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Employment432,247Top 5%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-0.4%Bottom 41%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (year over year)1.2%Top 13%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force456,330Top 5%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force participation63.8%Top 23%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.5%Top 27%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate5.3%Top 15%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/066.73.2
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 5.3% 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
202120222023202478k68k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $77,837 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 — Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators55,100$49,240
Retail Salespersons48,610$35,130
Home Health and Personal Care Aides46,480$35,120
Registered Nurses44,310$97,280
Fast Food and Counter Workers42,430$29,590
Cashiers37,910$30,090

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.

31% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 46% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 17.5 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
222
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
17.5
across all schools here
Math proficiency
30.9%
Bottom 41% in Michigan
Reading proficiency
45.8%
Bottom 28% in Michigan
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Dakota High SchoolChippewa Valley Schools2,47621.7
Chippewa Valley High SchoolChippewa Valley Schools2,16221.8
Adlai Stevenson High SchoolUtica Community Schools1,88118.1
Romeo High SchoolRomeo Community Schools1,81716.7
Henry Ford II High SchoolUtica Community Schools1,66320.0
Eisenhower High SchoolUtica Community Schools1,62519.8
High School NorthL'Anse Creuse Public Schools1,54521.8
Fraser High SchoolFraser Public Schools1,43113.6
Utica High SchoolUtica Community Schools1,39118.1
Warren Mott High SchoolWarren Consolidated Schools1,33522.3
Lakeview High SchoolLakeview Public Schools (Macomb)1,31922.0
Sterling Heights Senior HSWarren Consolidated Schools1,26218.8

51.6% 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 $1,211 takes 19% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.1 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
18.7%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.1×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,211
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$243,900
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income3.13Top 43%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate75.0%Top 48%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±193373,413Top 2%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$13$1,211Top 16%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$1,814$243,900Top 29%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income18.7%Top 32%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate3.9%Bottom 2%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
54/ 100
Top 43% of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing — 2 consecutive years, measured from 2020 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 886,175 in 2024.

At 2.3 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
1,981
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
2.3
Bottom 39% nationally
Year over year
+28%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
43.3%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
20202021202220232024886k876k
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
2020202120222023202420252k1k
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2020 (+21%).

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 82°F and January a low of 18°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 35.0 inches, including 32.2 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 42, in the Good band, and about 3 days a year pass 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station MT CLEMENS ANG BASE, 6.4 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND3.8"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index65.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation35.0"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall32.2"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low18°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high82°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10032024 calendar year
Median air quality index42.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing47°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
42
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
65
90th percentile index
Days above 100
3
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

82 / 100
Physical resilience

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

TornadoModerate
Strong windModerate
Ice stormModerate
Heat waveModerate

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

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.

Macomb County records 3.0 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 10.6 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 Macomb County.

Homicide
3.0
per 100,000 residents
Firearm deaths, all intents
10.6
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
17.5
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 Macomb 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 Macomb County rather than Macomb 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

4 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 39 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Detroit Metro Wayne CountyDTW39 mi12,003 ft
Mbs IntlMBS84 mi8,002 ft
Capital Region IntlLAN85 mi8,506 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
65
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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.