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Place dossier plate
SheetMI-MONROE-MI · Monroe, MI 20,330 pop · income 34th pct · 41 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 Monroe
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Monroe 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
24.1% of the leader · rank #1
Black Rock · near
59,531
Black Rock · near
59,531 median HH income
35.9% of the leader · rank #2
Perryville · near
59,531
Perryville · near
59,531 median HH income
35.9% of the leader · rank #3
Barboursville · near
59,531
Barboursville · near
59,531 median HH income
35.9% of the leader · rank #4
Monroe · this city
59,532
Monroe · this city
59,532 median HH income
35.9% of the leader · rank #5
Bayshore · near
59,538
Bayshore · near
59,538 median HH income
35.9% of the leader · rank #6
Marblehead · highest
165,859
Marblehead · highest
165,859 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
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Monroe on ACS population and median household income
. 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: 20,330.
Nationally, Monroe sits in the 34th percentile for household income among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS.
34th
percentile, household income
31st
percentile, home value
32nd
percentile, median rent
📝 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: Monroe, MI
20,330 people live in Monroe, Michigan - a small city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Monroe report a median income of $59,532 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 16.1%. Monroe's housing stock carries a median value of $161,500, and the median resident age is 36.9 years. Educational attainment runs 21.5% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 53.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 10 residential building permits were authorized in Monroe (Building Boom), up 900% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. The annual average temperature per NOAA climate normals runs 49.9°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. 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). Commute times here average 21.1 minutes, with 82.7% driving alone and 5.7% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 49.6 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Monroe'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 work and mobility to within-city variation to comparison shortlist to climate and hazard context to schools and households to housing and income to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Monroe, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count, local building permits, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What does the journey to work look like in Monroe?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 82.7%. The reported mean trip to work is 21.1 minutes.
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.
PlainCities matches 41 Census tracts to this city.
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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Monroe?
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.
Within Michigan, the closest population matches are Adrian (20,493 residents, $42,851 income); Marquette (20,691 residents, $55,825 income); Ypsilanti (19,937 residents, $44,141 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Marblehead, MA (20,334 residents); North Amityville, NY (20,364 residents); East Hemet, CA (20,292 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.
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.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 49.9°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.
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 Monroe?
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 15 public schools within the city match. 21.5% 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
16.1%
Bachelor's degree+
21.5%
Matched public schools
15
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
How far does income reach against housing in Monroe?
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.
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 16.1%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
2.7×
Home value
$161,500
Household income
$59,532
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -373 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -1.8% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 10 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
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.
2020 estimate
20,449
2025 estimate
20,076
Period change
-1.8%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Below median income · poverty 16.1% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
96.2 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Michigan average
F
City profile score · Monroe, MI
37/100
4 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.
Bachelor's+ share F
21.5%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$59,532
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
16.1%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Monroe profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 57/100 (C) · 96.2 index
Bachelor's+ share: 39/100 (F) · 21.5%
Household income: 34/100 (F) · $59,532
Poverty rate: 21/100 (F) · 16.1%
How does Monroe compare to other US cities?
Here's how Monroe stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income34% higher than other cities
Home value31% pricier than other cities
Median rent32% pricier than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Monroe 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 Monroe near the bottom of Michigan's cities
Among the 727 Michigan cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Monroe ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Monroe only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#370 of 718
48th percentile in Michigan
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 727
0th percentile in Michigan
Median Home Value
#326 of 721
55th percentile in Michigan
Poverty Rate
#138 of 727
81st percentile in Michigan
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#318 of 727
56th 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
34th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Monroe's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$161,500Among the most affordablemore affordable than 69% 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
Monroe's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.7×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#5,093 of 15,516
More affordable than 67% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#559 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 2.7×, Monroe sits in the affordable band:
national rank #5,093 of 15,516 and #559 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
$59,532Monroe, MI median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Monroe, 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 Monroe, MI.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)21.5%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)16.1%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)53.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
20,330
Median Income
$59,532
Median Home Value
$161,500
Median Age
36.9
Poverty Rate
16.1%
Labor force participation
53.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
21.5%
Climate
Avg Temperature
49.9°F
Annual Precipitation
N/A
Annual Snowfall
N/A
Schools
Total Schools
15
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Monroe's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
20,449 residents
2021
20,427 residents
2022
20,251 residents
2023
20,182 residents
2024
20,152 residents
2025
20,076 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
10
housing units authorized
Single-Family
4
detached homes
Multifamily
6
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.5
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
1
1
0
$0.1M
2020
3
3
0
$0.7M
2021
0
0
0
-
2022
0
0
0
-
2023
14
2
12
$2.2M
2024
10
4
6
$1.4M
Permit volume increased 900% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
21.1 minutes
Drive Alone
82.7%
Carpool
5.9%
Public Transit
1.5%
Walk
2.6%
Work from Home
5.7%
Other
1.6%
Based on 8,290 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 Monroe. 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 Monroe 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 Monroe sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Monroe 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, 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.