Escanaba, Michigan

Area Profile

12,354 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Escanaba, in Delta County.

Area Score unavailable

Missing required signal: growth. AreaProfile withholds a score rather than inferring the missing dimensions.

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3883rd of 3,904 cities measured16
SchoolsTop 46% of 2,668 cities measured55
Housing affordabilityTop 8% of 4,223 cities measured100
Climate4178th of 4,223 cities measured51
Physical resilienceTop 10% of 4,182 cities measured91
Access3759th of 4,226 cities measured69
Economic stability3882nd of 4,226 cities measured31
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 5.3% and the Opportunity signal places Escanaba in the bottom 1%.

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 2.8 times it.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published city profiles, placing Escanaba in the top 10% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
12,354
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$45,369
Bottom 16% nationally
Density
969/sq mi
12.7 sq mi of land
Median age
44.4
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Delta County
Michigan
Metro area
Escanaba, MI
Nearest major airport
SAW
44 mi · Marquette/Sawyer Rgnl
Median home value
$125,200
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.3% is lower than 16% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 6.5% over the past year, to 15,107 employed residents.

Median household income of $45,369 is below 84% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$2,562$45,369Bottom 16%of 29,5732024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,859$32,014Bottom 44%of 31,4202024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate17.7%Top 29%of 31,9002024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute12.6 minBottom 3%of 31,5432024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher19.8%Bottom 48%of 31,9192024 ACS 5-Year
Employment15,107Bottom 15%of 3,904June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-4.3%Bottom 5%of 3,903June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-6.5%Bottom 1%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force15,957Bottom 15%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force participation51.7%Bottom 25%of 31,9332024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.9%Bottom 7%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate5.3%Top 16%of 3,904June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202445k36k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $45,369 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 Delta County, MI, which contains this city.

32% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 57% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 17.4 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
8
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
17.4
across all schools here
Math proficiency
32.0%
Top 46% in Michigan
Reading proficiency
57.3%
Top 32% in Michigan
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Escanaba JuniorSenior High SchoolEscanaba Area Public Schools1,08920.232%62%
Escanaba Upper ElementaryEscanaba Area Public Schools42615.832%45%
Lemmer Elementary SchoolEscanaba Area Public Schools29616.4
Webster Kindergarten CenterEscanaba Area Public Schools21512.6
Escanaba Student Success CenterEscanaba Area Public Schools104104.0
Learning CenterDelta-Schoolcraft ISD747.4
Bay Pines CenterMichigan Department of Human Services29
DeltaSchoolcraft Area CenterDelta-Schoolcraft ISD0

55.8% 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 $657 takes 17% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.8 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
17.4%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.8×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$657
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$125,200
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income2.76Bottom 45%of 28,4732024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate63.9%Bottom 27%of 31,8432024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±2726,464Top 9%of 32,3302024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$118$657Bottom 12%of 23,4322024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$11,408$125,200Bottom 30%of 29,3422024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income17.4%Bottom 41%of 23,2012024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate11.6%Top 44%of 32,0012024 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 →

Population has fallen 1% since 2020, reaching 12,296 in 2024.

Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202412k12k
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.

No building-permit activity is published for this location by the Census Building Permits Survey.

Weather & climate

4 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 77°F and January a low of 8°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 28.8 inches, including 46.9 inches of snow.

0°20°40°60°80°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station ESCANABA, 2.0 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND3.5"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation28.8"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall46.9"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low8°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high77°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months41991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing50°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

91 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HailElevated
LightningModerate
Strong windModerate

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

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.

Delta County records 2.0 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 16.1 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 8.9 per 100,000 residents in Delta County.

Homicide
2.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
16.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
8.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
24.5
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 Delta 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 Escanaba rather than Escanaba 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

1 major airport lies within 100 miles, the nearest 44 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Marquette/Sawyer RgnlSAW44 mi9,072 ft
Green Bay/Austin Straubel IntlGRB101 mi8,700 ft
Appleton IntlATW124 mi8,003 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.

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
Your Score

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

Compare

Put Escanaba side by side with a similar place.

Escanaba vs CadillacEscanaba vs AlpenaEscanaba vs MacombEscanaba vs Cumberland

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)
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.

ZIP codes in Escanaba

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
4982916,416$50,277