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Place dossier plate
SheetMI-MOUNT-PLEASANT-MI · Mount Pleasant, MI 21,420 pop · income 8th pct · 18 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 Mount Pleasant
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Mount Pleasant on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Mendenhall · lowest
39,911
Mendenhall · lowest
39,911 median HH income
26.1% of the leader · rank #1
Tucumcari · near
39,915
Tucumcari · near
39,915 median HH income
26.1% of the leader · rank #2
Glendale · near
39,917
Glendale · near
39,917 median HH income
26.1% of the leader · rank #3
Mount Pleasant · this city
39,924
Mount Pleasant · this city
39,924 median HH income
26.1% of the leader · rank #4
Boyle · near
39,926
Boyle · near
39,926 median HH income
26.1% of the leader · rank #5
Fort Yukon · near
39,934
Fort Yukon · near
39,934 median HH income
26.1% of the leader · rank #6
Birmingham · highest
153,125
Birmingham · highest
153,125 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 Mount Pleasant 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: 21,420.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Mount Pleasant - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Mount Pleasant places in the 8th percentile for household income and the 48th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
8th
percentile, household income
33rd
percentile, home value
32nd
percentile, median rent
48th
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: Mount Pleasant, MI
Mount Pleasant is a small city in Michigan, home to 21,420 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Mount Pleasant brings in $39,924 a year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 19.9%. Home values in Mount Pleasant run a median of $168,700, and the median resident age is 23.3 years. About 44.9% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 56.0% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 3 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 92% from five years earlier. Mount Pleasant reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 1453.1 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, below the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures 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. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,113 per month. 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 Mount Pleasant'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 schools and households to housing and income to reported crime to comparison shortlist to within-city variation to population change to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Mount Pleasant, city-specific coverage includes within-city Census tract profiles, annual population history, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Mount Pleasant?
The matched institution count is small, so district boundaries and schools outside the city line may matter more than the municipal count suggests. Use the number as a coverage cue, then verify attendance zones with the district before making a household decision.
The NCES join finds 2 public schools within the city match. 44.9% 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Mount Pleasant?
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 4.2 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 19.9%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Which cities make useful reference points for Mount Pleasant?
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 Birmingham (21,612 residents, $153,125 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 Mountlake Terrace, WA (21,419 residents); Ashland, KY (21,405 residents); Secaucus, NJ (21,437 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.
What can 18 Census tracts reveal inside Mount Pleasant?
PlainCities matches 18 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.
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.
Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Mount Pleasant?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1453.1 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 36% 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.
Total reported rate
1453.1
Violent rate
427.7
Property rate
1025.4
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Is Mount Pleasant growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -810 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -3.7% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 3 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
21,735
2025 estimate
20,925
Period change
-3.7%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What does the journey to work look like in Mount Pleasant?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 62.3%. 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. 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.
Drive alone
62.3%
Work from home
9.1%
Public transit
1.1%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 10,291 workers age 16+.
Lowest-decile income · poverty 19.9% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
96.2 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Michigan average
F
City profile score · Mount Pleasant, MI
32/100
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 B+
44.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
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.
Violent crime F
428 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate F
19.9%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$39,924
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Mount Pleasant profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 79/100 (B+) · 44.9%
Cost of living: 57/100 (C) · 96.2 index
Violent crime: 20/100 (F) · 428 /100k
Poverty rate: 14/100 (F) · 19.9%
Household income: 7/100 (F) · $39,924
Where Mount Pleasant sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Mount Pleasant'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 - Mount Pleasant highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
Mount Pleasant, MI (this city): home $168,700, crime 1,453/100k
Mountlake Terrace, WA : home $606,100, crime 2,385/100k
Ashland, KY : home $125,300, crime 2,703/100k
Secaucus, NJ : home $557,800, crime 3,788/100k
New Hope, MN : home $314,600, crime 2,131/100k
Helena, AL : home $292,700, crime 507/100k
Birmingham, MI : home $712,700, crime 699/100k
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 Mount Pleasant compare to other US cities?
Here's how Mount Pleasant stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income8% higher than other cities
Home value33% pricier than other cities
Median rent32% pricier than other cities
Safety48% 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, Mount Pleasant ranks #150 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 Mount Pleasant 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 Mount Pleasant near the bottom of Michigan's cities
Among the 727 Michigan cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Mount Pleasant ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Mount Pleasant only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#664 of 718
8th percentile in Michigan
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 727
0th percentile in Michigan
Median Home Value
#307 of 721
57th percentile in Michigan
Poverty Rate
#74 of 727
90th percentile in Michigan
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#97 of 727
87th 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
8th percentile nationally for median household income · 48th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Mount Pleasant's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Mount Pleasant'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 Mount Pleasant's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$168,700Among the most affordablemore affordable than 67% 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
Mount Pleasant'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
#11,305 of 15,516
More affordable than 27% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,155 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 4.2×, Mount Pleasant sits in the moderate band:
national rank #11,305 of 15,516 and #2,155 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
$39,924Mount Pleasant, MI median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Mount Pleasant, 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 Mount Pleasant, MI.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)44.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)19.9%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)56.0%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
21,420
Median Income
$39,924
Median Home Value
$168,700
Median Age
23.3
Poverty Rate
19.9%
Labor force participation
56.0%
Bachelor's Degree+
44.9%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1453.1
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
427.7
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1025.4
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
2
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Mount Pleasant's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
21,735 residents
2021
21,299 residents
2022
21,110 residents
2023
20,942 residents
2024
21,034 residents
2025
20,925 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
3
housing units authorized
Single-Family
1
detached homes
Multifamily
2
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.1
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
36
8
28
$4.0M
2020
56
0
56
$2.7M
2021
7
3
4
$1.3M
2022
6
2
4
$1.1M
2023
7
1
6
$1.4M
2024
3
1
2
$0.5M
Permit volume decreased 92% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
62.3%
Carpool
7.8%
Public Transit
1.1%
Walk
17.1%
Work from Home
9.1%
Other
2.6%
Based on 10,291 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 Mount Pleasant. 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 Mount Pleasant 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 Mount Pleasant sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Mount Pleasant 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.