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Place dossier plate
SheetMI-ALPENA-MI · Alpena, MI 10,178 pop · income 16th pct · 7 tracts
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Alpena
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Alpena on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Mulberry · lowest
47,596
Mulberry · lowest
47,596 median HH income
29.6% of the leader · rank #1
Havana · near
47,599
Havana · near
47,599 median HH income
29.6% of the leader · rank #2
Alpena · this city
47,604
Alpena · this city
47,604 median HH income
29.6% of the leader · rank #3
Tryon · near
47,604
Tryon · near
47,604 median HH income
29.6% of the leader · rank #4
Alton · near
47,606
Alton · near
47,606 median HH income
29.6% of the leader · rank #5
South Carthage · near
47,610
South Carthage · near
47,610 median HH income
29.6% of the leader · rank #6
Grosse Pointe… · highest
160,589
Grosse Pointe… · highest
160,589 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Alpena on ACS population and median household income
, plus FBI UCR reporting rate when the extract covers this place. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 10,178.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Alpena - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Alpena lands in the 16th percentile for household income and the 46th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
16th
percentile, household income
13th
percentile, home value
32nd
percentile, median rent
46th
percentile, safety
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Alpena, MI
10,178 people live in Alpena, Michigan - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Alpena report a median income of $47,604 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 12.8%. Typical homes in Alpena are valued around $110,400, and the median resident age is 45.2 years. About 15.2% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 50.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 0 residential units authorized here in 2024 (No Permits), down 100% from five years earlier. Alpena reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 1503.8 incidents per 100,000 residents, below the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). The annual average temperature per NOAA climate normals runs 43.5°F.
Living costs in Michigan run below the national norm: the state registers 96.2 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Below Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,113 per month. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Michigan run around $238, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. Commute times here average 11.1 minutes, with 77.5% driving alone and 6.0% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 49.6 out of 100 (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Alpena's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from comparison shortlist to within-city variation to reported crime to work and mobility to population change to housing and income to climate and hazard context to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Alpena, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, commute-mode shares, within-city Census tract profiles, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
Which cities make useful reference points for Alpena?
Within Michigan, the closest population matches are Howell (10,074 residents, $57,122 income); Comstock Park (10,306 residents, $54,871 income); Grosse Pointe Farms (9,957 residents, $160,589 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Baker City, OR (10,177 residents); Snohomish, WA (10,177 residents); Cross Lanes, WV (10,172 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Alpena?
Treat this as a reporting-rate comparison, not a prediction of personal risk or a neighborhood-level safety grade. Tourism, daytime population, reporting practices, and variation inside the city are not adjusted away. The state rank and same-state peer table are the narrower comparisons available on this page.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1503.8 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 34% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
What does the journey to work look like in Alpena?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. No single mode completely explains the work trip here. The mix is more useful than a one-number commute grade, especially when comparing places where transit, walking, and remote work divide the non-driving share differently.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 77.5%. The reported mean trip to work is 11.1 minutes.
These joined records add useful context, but they do not need another full-size panel. Each remains a separate measure with its own geography and source boundary.
Population change
Is Alpena growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Recent estimates point downward. A falling count can reflect migration, household size, annexation boundaries, or estimation noise, so it is a prompt to inspect the full series rather than a claim about local economic health.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -139 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -1.4% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 0 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
-1.4%
2025 estimate
10,088
2020 estimate
10,227
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
How far does income reach against housing in Alpena?
The home-value-to-income reference is relatively compact: the ACS median home value is 2.3 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 12.8%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. The ratio makes housing the clearest place to start this profile, but a low multiple can coexist with slow demand, older stock, or household-level hardship. Compare the home-value distribution and same-state peer table before treating it as an advantage.
Household income
$47,604
Home value
$110,400
Value / income
2.3×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 43.5°F. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Michigan is 49.6 out of 100. Climate normals describe long-run weather; the FEMA score on PlainCities is a state average of county NRI inputs and combines hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and resilience.
The two sources should not be blended into one comfort or safety score. Use the climate values for baseline conditions and the risk index as a prompt to inspect specific hazards, insurance, and local emergency guidance for a particular address.
Mean temperature
43.5°F
FEMA risk index (state avg)
49.6
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
The NCES join finds 8 public schools within the city match. 15.2% of adults age 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher in the ACS estimate. These measures answer different questions: the school count describes local institutions, while adult attainment describes residents and cannot be used as a school-quality rating.
The city has a broader matched school footprint, but count alone does not describe performance, capacity, program availability, or attendance boundaries. This profile deliberately avoids converting it into an unsupported family-friendliness score.
Matched public schools
8
Bachelor's degree+
15.2%
Poverty estimate
12.8%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Michigan average
F
City profile score · Alpena, MI
28/100
5 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2023
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Cost of living C
96.2 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Poverty rate F
12.8%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
15.2%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$47,604
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime F
514 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Alpena profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 57/100 (C) · 96.2 index
Poverty rate: 29/100 (F) · 12.8%
Bachelor's+ share: 21/100 (F) · 15.2%
Household income: 17/100 (F) · $47,604
Violent crime: 15/100 (F) · 514 /100k
Where Alpena sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Alpena's median home value and FBI crime rate plotted with similar-size and
same-state peers (padded with large cities when the peer set is thin). The second
read: pricey does not always mean safer, check which quadrant this city lands in.
Census ACS median home value vs FBI UCR crime rate - Alpena highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
Alpena, MI (this city): home $110,400, crime 1,504/100k
Snohomish, WA : home $599,600, crime 1,773/100k
Glenwood Springs, CO : home $592,000, crime 4,771/100k
La Grange, KY : home $268,000, crime 978/100k
Molalla, OR : home $416,900, crime 825/100k
Howell, MI : home $240,700, crime 751/100k
Grosse Pointe Farms, MI : home $418,600, crime 1,110/100k
Cadillac, MI : home $117,500, crime 2,928/100k
Marysville, MI : home $185,500, crime 667/100k
Flat Rock, MI : home $201,400, crime 1,282/100k
How does Alpena compare to other US cities?
Here's how Alpena stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income16% higher than other cities
Home value13% pricier than other cities
Median rent32% pricier than other cities
Safety46% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just Michigan and the picture shifts: Alpena ranks #156 of 254 Michigan cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Alpena against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Michigan only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Michigan-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Alpena near the bottom of Michigan's cities
Among the 727 Michigan cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Alpena ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Alpena only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#564 of 718
21st percentile in Michigan
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 727
0th percentile in Michigan
Median Home Value
#523 of 721
27th percentile in Michigan
Poverty Rate
#220 of 727
69th percentile in Michigan
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#470 of 727
35th percentile in Michigan
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within Michigan only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
16th percentile nationally for median household income · 46th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Alpena's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Alpena's percentile rank on 3 favorable-direction measures (income, affordability, safety) vs. every tracked US city -- higher on every axis is more favorable. Not a composite quality score, just the arithmetic mean of the axes shown.
How Alpena's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$110,400Among the most affordablemore affordable than 87% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Alpena's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.3×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#3,057 of 15,516
More affordable than 80% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#220 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 2.3×, Alpena sits in the affordable band:
national rank #3,057 of 15,516 and #220 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
The multiple is comparatively compact among tracked cities, but a low ratio can still coexist with slow demand or household-level hardship.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$47,604Alpena, MI median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Alpena, MI median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Alpena, MI.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)15.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)12.8%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)50.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
10,178
Median Income
$47,604
Median Home Value
$110,400
Median Age
45.2
Poverty Rate
12.8%
Labor force participation
50.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
15.2%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1503.8
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
514.4
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
989.3
per 100,000 residents
Crime reporting caveat
Reflects incidents reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program — agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies by jurisdiction and year, so this reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score. Not adjusted for tourism, commuter, or daytime population.
Climate
Avg Temperature
43.5°F
Annual Precipitation
N/A
Annual Snowfall
N/A
Schools
Total Schools
8
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Alpena's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
10,227 residents
2021
10,238 residents
2022
10,171 residents
2023
10,155 residents
2024
10,130 residents
2025
10,088 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
Total Permits (2024)
0
housing units authorized
Single-Family
0
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
7
2
5
$1.5M
2020
8
2
6
$1.6M
2021
2
2
0
$0.4M
2022
0
0
0
-
2023
3
3
0
$0.7M
2024
0
0
0
-
Permit volume decreased 100% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
11.1 minutes
Drive Alone
77.5%
Carpool
8.2%
Public Transit
1.3%
Walk
2.0%
Work from Home
6.0%
Other
5.0%
Based on 4,316 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Michigan statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $238
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Michigan at $238 (electricity about $105 , water and sewer about $48 ).
These are Michigan statewide averages, not a meter reading for Alpena. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Michigan's BEA cost-of-living index is 96.2 (Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Alpena is $1,113/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Michigan statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 49.6 / 100 (Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Michigan statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Alpena sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Alpena compares to similar-size Michigan cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, FBI UCR, NOAA Climate Normals, NCES CCD, Census BPS 2024, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.