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Place dossier plate
SheetMI-GLADSTONE-MI · Gladstone, MI 5,240 pop · income 31st 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 Gladstone
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Gladstone on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Chester · lowest
41,231
Chester · lowest
41,231 median HH income
40.5% of the leader · rank #1
Standing Pine · near
57,532
Standing Pine · near
57,532 median HH income
56.5% of the leader · rank #2
Iowa City · near
57,533
Iowa City · near
57,533 median HH income
56.5% of the leader · rank #3
Gladstone · this city
57,534
Gladstone · this city
57,534 median HH income
56.5% of the leader · rank #4
Bellevue · near
57,534
Bellevue · near
57,534 median HH income
56.5% of the leader · rank #5
Fancy Farm · near
57,536
Fancy Farm · near
57,536 median HH income
56.5% of the leader · rank #6
Highwood · highest
101,862
Highwood · highest
101,862 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 Gladstone 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: 5,240.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Gladstone - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Gladstone lands in the 31st percentile for household income and the 84th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
31st
percentile, household income
14th
percentile, home value
32nd
percentile, median rent
84th
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: Gladstone, MI
5,240 people live in Gladstone, Michigan - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Gladstone report a median income of $57,534 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 13.8%. Home values in Gladstone run a median of $111,700, and the median resident age is 41.5 years. 20.7% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 48.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 0 residential building permits were authorized in Gladstone (No Permits), per Census BPS data. Gladstone reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR figures show 516.1 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. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,113 per month statewide. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Michigan run around $238, per EIA 2023 residential energy 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 Gladstone'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 population change to work and mobility to comparison shortlist to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Gladstone, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, 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.
Question 1
How far does income reach against housing in Gladstone?
The home-value-to-income reference is relatively compact: the ACS median home value is 1.9 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 13.8%, 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.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Gladstone?
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 516.1 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 77% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Is Gladstone 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 declined by -39 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.7% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Gladstone?
Within Michigan, the closest population matches are Eaton Rapids (5,197 residents, $63,618 income); Comstock Northwest (5,190 residents, $73,290 income); Springfield (5,295 residents, $43,681 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Chester, SC (5,241 residents); Cresaptown, MD (5,238 residents); Highwood, IL (5,243 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 Gladstone?
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 78.9%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
1.4%
Work from home
4.6%
Drive alone
78.9%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 2,072 workers age 16+.
What does the education layer cover for Gladstone?
The NCES join finds 4 public schools within the city match. 20.7% 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
4
Bachelor's degree+
20.7%
Poverty estimate
13.8%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Below median income · poverty 13.8% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
96.2 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Michigan average
D
City profile score · Gladstone, MI
47/100
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.
Violent crime A
38 /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.
Bachelor's+ share F
20.7%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$57,534
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
13.8%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Gladstone profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 87/100 (A) · 38 /100k
Cost of living: 57/100 (C) · 96.2 index
Bachelor's+ share: 36/100 (F) · 20.7%
Household income: 31/100 (F) · $57,534
Poverty rate: 25/100 (F) · 13.8%
Where Gladstone sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Gladstone'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 - Gladstone highlighted among 27 peers.Read the chart values
Gladstone, MI (this city): home $111,700, crime 516/100k
Chester, SC : home $106,400, crime 4,835/100k
Chardon, OH : home $274,500, crime 458/100k
Johnstown, OH : home $314,600, crime 785/100k
Eaton Rapids, MI : home $140,600, crime 1,651/100k
Utica, MI : home $216,800, crime 2,829/100k
Allegan, MI : home $161,100, crime 661/100k
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 Gladstone compare to other US cities?
Where Gladstone sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income31% higher than other cities
Home value14% pricier than other cities
Median rent32% pricier than other cities
Safety84% 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: Gladstone ranks #42 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 Gladstone 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 Gladstone near the bottom of Michigan's cities
Among the 727 Michigan cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Gladstone ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Gladstone only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#394 of 718
45th percentile in Michigan
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 727
0th percentile in Michigan
Median Home Value
#516 of 721
28th percentile in Michigan
Poverty Rate
#192 of 727
73rd percentile in Michigan
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#334 of 727
54th 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
31st percentile nationally for median household income · 84th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Gladstone's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Gladstone'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 Gladstone's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$111,700Among the most affordablemore affordable than 86% 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
Gladstone's home-value-to-income ratio: 1.9×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#1,445 of 15,516
More affordable than 91% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,390 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 1.9×, Gladstone sits in the affordable band:
national rank #1,445 of 15,516 and #1,390 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
$57,534Gladstone, MI median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Gladstone, 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 Gladstone, MI.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)20.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)13.8%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)48.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
5,240
Median Income
$57,534
Median Home Value
$111,700
Median Age
41.5
Poverty Rate
13.8%
Labor force participation
48.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
20.7%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
516.1
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
38.2
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
477.8
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
Gladstone's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
5,228 residents
2021
5,224 residents
2022
5,222 residents
2023
5,222 residents
2024
5,206 residents
2025
5,189 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
0
0
0
-
2020
0
0
0
-
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
78.9%
Carpool
8.9%
Public Transit
1.4%
Walk
5.5%
Work from Home
4.6%
Other
0.7%
Based on 2,072 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 Gladstone. 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 Gladstone 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 Gladstone sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Gladstone 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.