Side-by-side metrics and state or size-class ranks use the same Census and FBI fields shown on this profile. Results stay in the URL so you can bookmark or share them.
Place dossier plate
SheetMI-CHELSEA-MI · Chelsea, MI 5,420 pop · income 52nd 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 Chelsea
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Chelsea on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Cocoa West · lowest
32,746
Cocoa West · lowest
32,746 median HH income
16.6% of the leader · rank #1
Golden Grove · near
71,694
Golden Grove · near
71,694 median HH income
36.4% of the leader · rank #2
Brushy · near
71,696
Brushy · near
71,696 median HH income
36.4% of the leader · rank #3
Clyman · near
71,696
Clyman · near
71,696 median HH income
36.4% of the leader · rank #4
Chelsea · this city
71,702
Chelsea · this city
71,702 median HH income
36.4% of the leader · rank #5
White · near
71,705
White · near
71,705 median HH income
36.4% of the leader · rank #6
North Hills · highest
196,938
North Hills · highest
196,938 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 Chelsea 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: 5,420.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Chelsea - the verdict
Chelsea ranks in the 52nd percentile for household income and the 67th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
52nd
percentile, household income
65th
percentile, home value
32nd
percentile, median rent
67th
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: Chelsea, MI
Chelsea is a small town in Michigan, home to 5,420 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Chelsea households earn a median of $71,702 annually, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 0.6%. Home values in Chelsea run a median of $301,100, and the median resident age is 50.8 years. About 50.8% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 52.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 4 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 73% from five years earlier. Chelsea reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 937.2 incidents per 100,000 residents, below the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA climate normals record an annual average temperature of 48.3°F with 34.7 inches of precipitation per year and 32.9 inches of snowfall.
Living costs in Michigan run below the national norm: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Michigan at 96.2 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Below Average). Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,113 monthly. Monthly utility costs average around $238 across Michigan, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Commute times here average 19.2 minutes, with 69.9% driving alone and 20.2% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. 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 Chelsea'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 climate and hazard context to population change to schools and households to work and mobility to housing and income to reported crime to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Chelsea, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, local building permits, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates.
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.
Question 1
What physical conditions frame life in Chelsea?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 48.3°F, with 34.7 inches of precipitation and 32.9 inches of annual snowfall. 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.
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 declined by -21 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.4% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 4 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
The NCES join finds 4 public schools within the city match. 50.8% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Chelsea?
Within Michigan, the closest population matches are Springfield (5,295 residents, $43,681 income); Grosse Pointe (5,561 residents, $141,985 income); St. Clair (5,581 residents, $68,482 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are North Hills, NY (5,419 residents); Tyrone, PA (5,421 residents); Zephyrhills South, FL (5,422 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.
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.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Chelsea?
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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 69.9%. The reported mean trip to work is 19.2 minutes.
Public transit
0.0%
Work from home
20.2%
Drive alone
69.9%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 2,395 workers age 16+.
How far does income reach against housing in Chelsea?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.2 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 0.6%, 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. 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.
Household income
$71,702
Home value
$301,100
Value / income
4.2×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Chelsea?
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 937.2 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 59% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
787.3
Violent rate
150.0
Total reported rate
937.2
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Above median income · poverty 0.6% (Very low poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
96.2 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Michigan average
B-
City profile score · Chelsea, MI
68/100
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.
Poverty rate A+
0.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share A
50.8%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime C
150 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger 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.
Household income C-
$71,702
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Chelsea profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Poverty rate: 96/100 (A+) · 0.6%
Bachelor's+ share: 85/100 (A) · 50.8%
Violent crime: 58/100 (C) · 150 /100k
Cost of living: 57/100 (C) · 96.2 index
Household income: 51/100 (C-) · $71,702
Where Chelsea sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Chelsea'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 - Chelsea highlighted among 27 peers.Read the chart values
Chelsea, MI (this city): home $301,100, crime 937/100k
Tyrone, PA : home $122,000, crime 1,401/100k
Waynesville, MO : home $204,100, crime 1,391/100k
Grosse Pointe, MI : home $391,800, crime 2,081/100k
St. Clair, MI : home $241,700, crime 515/100k
Gladstone, MI : home $111,700, crime 516/100k
Eaton Rapids, MI : home $140,600, crime 1,651/100k
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 Chelsea compare to other US cities?
Chelsea measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income52% higher than other cities
Home value65% pricier than other cities
Median rent32% pricier than other cities
Safety67% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
A national percentile can hide a lot of local variation: narrowed to Michigan alone, Chelsea ranks #96 of 254 Michigan cities by lowest crime rate - a different, more locally useful comparison than stacking it against the entire country.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Chelsea 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 Chelsea near the bottom of Michigan's cities
Among the 727 Michigan cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Chelsea ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Chelsea only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#217 of 718
70th percentile in Michigan
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 727
0th percentile in Michigan
Median Home Value
#76 of 721
89th percentile in Michigan
Poverty Rate
#658 of 727
9th percentile in Michigan
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#63 of 727
91st 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
52nd percentile nationally for median household income · 67th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Chelsea's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Chelsea'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 Chelsea's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$301,10035th percentilemore affordable than 35% 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
Chelsea's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.2×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#11,238 of 15,516
More affordable than 28% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#8,710 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 4.2×, Chelsea sits in the moderate band:
national rank #11,238 of 15,516 and #8,710 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
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
$71,702Chelsea, MI median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Chelsea, 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 Chelsea, MI.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)50.8%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)0.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)52.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
5,420
Median Income
$71,702
Median Home Value
$301,100
Median Age
50.8
Poverty Rate
0.6%
Labor force participation
52.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
50.8%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
937.2
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
150.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
787.3
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
48.3°F
Annual Precipitation
34.7"
Annual Snowfall
32.9"
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
Chelsea's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
5,445 residents
2021
5,428 residents
2022
5,390 residents
2023
5,372 residents
2024
5,320 residents
2025
5,424 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
4
housing units authorized
Single-Family
4
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.7
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
15
2
13
$1.8M
2020
2
2
0
$0.3M
2021
2
2
0
$0.3M
2022
5
5
0
$1.4M
2023
2
2
0
$0.6M
2024
4
4
0
$1.2M
Permit volume decreased 73% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
19.2 minutes
Drive Alone
69.9%
Carpool
4.6%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
3.6%
Work from Home
20.2%
Other
1.7%
Based on 2,395 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 Chelsea. 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 Chelsea 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 Chelsea sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Chelsea 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.