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Place dossier plate
SheetMI-BELDING-MI · Belding, MI 5,949 pop · income 29th pct
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 Belding
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Belding on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Buena Vista · lowest
38,835
Buena Vista · lowest
38,835 median HH income
16.2% of the leader · rank #1
Harlingen · near
55,891
Harlingen · near
55,891 median HH income
23.3% of the leader · rank #2
Blairsville · near
55,893
Blairsville · near
55,893 median HH income
23.3% of the leader · rank #3
Garrett · near
55,893
Garrett · near
55,893 median HH income
23.3% of the leader · rank #4
Belding · this city
55,895
Belding · this city
55,895 median HH income
23.3% of the leader · rank #5
Watervliet · near
55,897
Watervliet · near
55,897 median HH income
23.3% of the leader · rank #6
Fulton · highest
240,219
Fulton · highest
240,219 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 Belding 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: 5,949.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Belding - the verdict
Nationally, Belding sits in the 29th percentile for household income and the 66th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
29th
percentile, household income
28th
percentile, home value
32nd
percentile, median rent
66th
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: Belding, MI
5,949 people live in Belding, Michigan - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Belding households earn a median of $55,895 annually, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 11.4%. Home values in Belding run a median of $152,700, and the median resident age is 37.2 years. About 15.0% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 56.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Belding reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 953.0 in FBI UCR data, below the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Living costs in Michigan run below the national norm: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Michigan scores 96.2 (Below Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,113 per month statewide. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Michigan's average monthly utility costs around $238 (state average). The average commute for Belding workers runs 26.9 minutes, with 87.2% driving alone and 1.1% working from home. Natural-hazard exposure scores 49.6 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Belding'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 housing and income to reported crime to comparison shortlist to work and mobility to population change to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Belding, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
How far does income reach against housing in Belding?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.7 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 11.4%, 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. Income and home value move within the same broad scale here. The useful next check is not a generic affordability label, but whether similar-size cities offer a materially different income, housing, or commute trade-off.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Belding?
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 953.0 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 58% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Which cities make useful reference points for Belding?
Within Michigan, the closest population matches are Holly (5,971 residents, $61,221 income); Buena Vista (5,904 residents, $38,835 income); Swartz Creek (5,856 residents, $73,862 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Asbury, IA (5,949 residents); Doney Park, AZ (5,947 residents); Lucerne Valley, CA (5,946 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Belding?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. The profile is strongly car-oriented, so a relocation comparison should put trip distance, vehicle access, and household fuel costs ahead of a citywide commute average. The same-state peer links offer a more relevant benchmark than a national label.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 87.2%. The reported mean trip to work is 26.9 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 Belding growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
The recent population line is broadly flat. That makes the composition of change more important than the headline count: housing turnover, household size, and age structure can shift even when the total barely moves.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +53 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +0.9% change. No comparable local building-permit series is available here, so population change should not be read as a housing-supply measure. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
+0.9%
2025 estimate
6,000
2020 estimate
5,947
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
The NCES join finds 5 public schools within the city match. 15.0% 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
5
Bachelor's degree+
15.0%
Poverty estimate
11.4%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Below median income · poverty 11.4% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
96.2 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Michigan average
F
City profile score · Belding, MI
34/100
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
11.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$55,895
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime F
351 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
15.0%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Belding profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 57/100 (C) · 96.2 index
Poverty rate: 34/100 (F) · 11.4%
Household income: 29/100 (F) · $55,895
Violent crime: 26/100 (F) · 351 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 20/100 (F) · 15.0%
Where Belding sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Belding'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 - Belding highlighted among 26 peers.Read the chart values
Belding, MI (this city): home $152,700, crime 953/100k
Asbury, IA : home $312,400, crime 199/100k
Holly, MI : home $174,900, crime 642/100k
Petoskey, MI : home $319,300, crime 685/100k
Richmond, MI : home $228,000, crime 687/100k
Milan, MI : home $233,700, crime 868/100k
New York, NY : home $751,700, crime 3,039/100k
Los Angeles, CA : home $879,500, crime 2,212/100k
Chicago, IL : home $315,200, crime 4,012/100k
Houston, TX : home $253,400, crime 5,442/100k
Phoenix, AZ : home $381,900, crime 3,125/100k
Philadelphia, PA : home $232,400, crime 5,457/100k
San Antonio, TX : home $219,700, crime 5,218/100k
San Diego, CA : home $848,500, crime 2,082/100k
Dallas, TX : home $295,300, crime 4,010/100k
San Jose, CA : home $1,187,800, crime 3,195/100k
Austin, TX : home $512,700, crime 3,709/100k
Fort Worth, TX : home $277,300, crime 3,158/100k
Columbus, OH : home $234,500, crime 3,088/100k
Indianapolis, IN : home $207,000, crime 4,214/100k
San Francisco, CA : home $1,380,500, crime 4,526/100k
Seattle, WA : home $912,100, crime 5,783/100k
Denver, CO : home $586,700, crime 5,755/100k
Oklahoma City, OK : home $215,100, crime 3,570/100k
El Paso, TX : home $171,700, crime 1,772/100k
Washington, DC : home $724,600, crime 4,514/100k
How does Belding compare to other US cities?
Belding measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income29% higher than other cities
Home value28% pricier than other cities
Median rent32% pricier than other cities
Safety66% 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: Belding ranks #98 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 Belding 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 Belding near the bottom of Michigan's cities
Among the 727 Michigan cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Belding ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Belding only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#422 of 718
41st percentile in Michigan
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 727
0th percentile in Michigan
Median Home Value
#361 of 721
50th percentile in Michigan
Poverty Rate
#257 of 727
64th percentile in Michigan
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#477 of 727
34th 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
29th percentile nationally for median household income · 66th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Belding's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Belding'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 Belding's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$152,700Among the most affordablemore affordable than 72% 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
Belding's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.7×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#5,207 of 15,516
More affordable than 66% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#4,547 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.7×, Belding sits in the affordable band:
national rank #5,207 of 15,516 and #4,547 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
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
$55,895Belding, MI median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Belding, 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 Belding, MI.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)15.0%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)11.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)56.7%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
5,949
Median Income
$55,895
Median Home Value
$152,700
Median Age
37.2
Poverty Rate
11.4%
Labor force participation
56.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
15.0%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
953.0
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
351.1
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
601.9
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.
Schools
Total Schools
5
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Belding's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
5,947 residents
2021
5,984 residents
2022
5,969 residents
2023
5,964 residents
2024
5,979 residents
2025
6,000 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
26.9 minutes
Drive Alone
87.2%
Carpool
7.8%
Public Transit
1.6%
Walk
2.3%
Work from Home
1.1%
Based on 2,639 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 Belding. 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 Belding 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 Belding sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Belding 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, NCES CCD, 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.