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Place dossier plate
SheetMI-BIRMINGHAM-MI · Birmingham, MI 21,612 pop · income 95th 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 Birmingham
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Birmingham on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Mount Pleasant · lowest
39,924
Mount Pleasant · lowest
39,924 median HH income
26.1% of the leader · rank #1
Erda · near
153,068
Erda · near
153,068 median HH income
99.9% of the leader · rank #2
Del Dios · near
153,083
Del Dios · near
153,083 median HH income
99.9% of the leader · rank #3
Townsend · near
153,083
Townsend · near
153,083 median HH income
99.9% of the leader · rank #4
Birmingham · this city
153,125
Birmingham · this city
153,125 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #5
Otter Lake · near
153,162
Otter Lake · near
153,162 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #6
Half Moon Bay · highest
153,199
Half Moon Bay · highest
153,199 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 Birmingham 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: 21,612.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Birmingham - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Birmingham lands in the 95th percentile for household income and the 77th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
95th
percentile, household income
93rd
percentile, home value
32nd
percentile, median rent
77th
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: Birmingham, MI
Michigan's Birmingham is a small city, with 21,612 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. The typical household in Birmingham brings in $153,125 a year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 3.4%. Typical homes in Birmingham are valued around $712,700, and the median resident age is 41.1 years. 76.9% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 66.9% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 112 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Building Boom), up 81% from five years earlier. Birmingham reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR figures show 698.7 crimes per 100,000 residents, below the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than a definitive danger score).
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. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,113 monthly. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Michigan's average monthly utility costs around $238 (state average). 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 Birmingham'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 comparison shortlist to population change to reported crime to schools and households to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Birmingham, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, local building permits, matched public-school count, annual population history.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Birmingham?
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. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.7 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 3.4%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Which cities make useful reference points for Birmingham?
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.
Within Michigan, the closest population matches are Mount Pleasant (21,420 residents, $39,924 income); Marquette (20,691 residents, $55,825 income); Adrian (20,493 residents, $42,851 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Dickinson, TX (21,612 residents); South Euclid, OH (21,606 residents); Valinda, CA (21,626 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.
Is Birmingham growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +159 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +0.7% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 112 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
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.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Birmingham?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 698.7 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 69% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
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.
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.
Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Birmingham?
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.
The NCES join finds 4 public schools within the city match. 76.9% 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.
Poverty estimate
3.4%
Bachelor's degree+
76.9%
Matched public schools
4
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What does the journey to work look like in Birmingham?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 66.5%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. Remote work has a visible role in the local pattern. That can reduce commute exposure for some workers, but it says nothing about job availability or broadband quality; read it alongside income and housing rather than as a stand-alone lifestyle score.
Drive alone
66.5%
Work from home
25.1%
Public transit
0.3%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 11,174 workers age 16+.
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Michigan average
A-
City profile score · Birmingham, MI
82/100
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.
Bachelor's+ share A+
76.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income A+
$153,125
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime A-
56 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate B+
3.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
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.
Birmingham profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 100/100 (A+) · 76.9%
Household income: 97/100 (A+) · $153,125
Violent crime: 82/100 (A-) · 56 /100k
Poverty rate: 76/100 (B+) · 3.4%
Cost of living: 57/100 (C) · 96.2 index
Where Birmingham sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Birmingham'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 - Birmingham highlighted among 8 peers.Read the chart values
Birmingham, MI (this city): home $712,700, crime 699/100k
Dickinson, TX : home $244,500, crime 1,270/100k
South Euclid, OH : home $134,800, crime 2,033/100k
St. John, IN : home $370,800, crime 153/100k
Mount Pleasant, MI : home $168,700, crime 1,453/100k
Marquette, MI : home $254,100, crime 697/100k
Adrian, MI : home $119,900, crime 2,968/100k
Ypsilanti, MI : home $223,700, crime 3,034/100k
How does Birmingham compare to other US cities?
Where Birmingham sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income95% higher than other cities
Home value93% pricier than other cities
Median rent32% pricier than other cities
Safety77% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
National percentiles can mask local variation. Looking only at Michigan, Birmingham ranks #69 of 254 Michigan cities by lowest crime rate - a narrower, more locally useful cut than the national comparison above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Birmingham 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 Birmingham near the bottom of Michigan's cities
Among the 727 Michigan cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Birmingham ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Birmingham only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#18 of 718
97th percentile in Michigan
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 727
0th percentile in Michigan
Median Home Value
#7 of 721
99th percentile in Michigan
Poverty Rate
#551 of 727
23rd percentile in Michigan
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#13 of 727
98th 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
95th percentile nationally for median household income · 77th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Birmingham's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Birmingham'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 Birmingham's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$712,7007th percentilemore affordable than 7% 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
Birmingham's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.7×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#12,290 of 15,516
More affordable than 21% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,442 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 4.7×, Birmingham sits in the moderate band:
national rank #12,290 of 15,516 and #2,442 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
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
$153,125Birmingham, MI median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Birmingham, 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 Birmingham, MI.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)76.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)3.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)66.9%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
21,612
Median Income
$153,125
Median Home Value
$712,700
Median Age
41.1
Poverty Rate
3.4%
Labor force participation
66.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
76.9%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
698.7
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
56.3
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
642.4
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
4
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Birmingham's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
21,764 residents
2021
21,620 residents
2022
21,508 residents
2023
21,491 residents
2024
21,842 residents
2025
21,923 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
112
housing units authorized
Single-Family
63
detached homes
Multifamily
49
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
5.2
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
62
62
0
$33.9M
2020
58
58
0
$36.3M
2021
59
59
0
$38.1M
2022
72
72
0
$54.2M
2023
64
64
0
$51.6M
2024
112
63
49
$79.1M
Permit volume increased 81% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
66.5%
Carpool
5.9%
Public Transit
0.3%
Walk
1.6%
Work from Home
25.1%
Other
0.6%
Based on 11,174 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 Birmingham. 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 Birmingham 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 Birmingham sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Birmingham 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 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.