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Place dossier plate
SheetMI-WHITEHALL-MI · Whitehall, MI 2,974 pop · income 33rd pct · 46 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 Whitehall
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Whitehall on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Fowlerville · lowest
43,155
Fowlerville · lowest
43,155 median HH income
39.7% of the leader · rank #1
Whitehall · this city
58,750
Whitehall · this city
58,750 median HH income
54.1% of the leader · rank #2
Dodge City · near
58,750
Dodge City · near
58,750 median HH income
54.1% of the leader · rank #3
Emmet · near
58,750
Emmet · near
58,750 median HH income
54.1% of the leader · rank #4
Horseshoe Lake · near
58,750
Horseshoe Lake · near
58,750 median HH income
54.1% of the leader · rank #5
Mechanicsville · near
58,750
Mechanicsville · near
58,750 median HH income
54.1% of the leader · rank #6
Sandwich · highest
108,583
Sandwich · highest
108,583 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 Whitehall 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: 2,974.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Whitehall - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Whitehall lands in the 33rd percentile for household income and the 56th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
33rd
percentile, household income
44th
percentile, home value
32nd
percentile, median rent
56th
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: Whitehall, MI
2,974 people live in Whitehall, Michigan - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $58,750 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 13.2%. Home values in Whitehall run a median of $205,800, and the median resident age is 35.5 years. Educational attainment runs 26.3% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 58.3% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 44 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Building Boom), up 110% from five years earlier. Whitehall reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 1199.1 incidents per 100,000 residents, below the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not 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. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 49.6 out of 100 (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Whitehall'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 within-city variation to housing and income to reported crime to schools and households to population change to work and mobility to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Whitehall, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, within-city Census tract profiles.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
What can 46 Census tracts reveal inside Whitehall?
PlainCities matches 46 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Whitehall?
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 3.5 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 13.2%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Whitehall?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1199.1 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 47% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Whitehall?
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 Fowlerville (2,950 residents, $43,155 income); Ferrysburg (2,949 residents, $62,096 income); Iron River (3,009 residents, $48,750 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Dresden, TN (2,974 residents); Eglin AFB, FL (2,975 residents); Lakewood, NY (2,975 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.
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 Whitehall?
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. 26.3% 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
13.2%
Bachelor's degree+
26.3%
Matched public schools
4
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Is Whitehall growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +285 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +9.8% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 44 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 upward. Growth can increase housing demand and service needs, but the permit record must move in the same direction before calling it a supply response; the two series measure different things.
2020 estimate
2,920
2025 estimate
3,205
Period change
+9.8%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What does the journey to work look like in Whitehall?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 84.0%. 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
84.0%
Work from home
3.4%
Public transit
0.0%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 1,210 workers age 16+.
Below median income · poverty 13.2% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
96.2 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Michigan average
D
City profile score · Whitehall, MI
46/100
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 C+
126 /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 C-
26.3%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$58,750
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
13.2%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Whitehall profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 64/100 (C+) · 126 /100k
Cost of living: 57/100 (C) · 96.2 index
Bachelor's+ share: 52/100 (C-) · 26.3%
Household income: 33/100 (F) · $58,750
Poverty rate: 27/100 (F) · 13.2%
Where Whitehall sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Whitehall'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 - Whitehall highlighted among 9 peers.Read the chart values
Whitehall, MI (this city): home $205,800, crime 1,199/100k
Dresden, TN : home $104,200, crime 988/100k
Jones, OK : home $204,500, crime 827/100k
Elkton, VA : home $232,300, crime 1,076/100k
Sandwich, MA : home $511,000, crime 473/100k
Fowlerville, MI : home $189,000, crime 3,624/100k
Iron River, MI : home $75,000, crime 724/100k
Bad Axe, MI : home $106,700, crime 1,722/100k
Corunna, MI : home $142,000, crime 365/100k
How does Whitehall compare to other US cities?
Whitehall measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income33% higher than other cities
Home value44% pricier than other cities
Median rent32% pricier than other cities
Safety56% 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, Whitehall ranks #124 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 Whitehall 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 Whitehall near the bottom of Michigan's cities
Among the 727 Michigan cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Whitehall ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Whitehall only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#381 of 718
47th percentile in Michigan
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 727
0th percentile in Michigan
Median Home Value
#211 of 721
71st percentile in Michigan
Poverty Rate
#209 of 727
71st percentile in Michigan
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#242 of 727
66th 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
33rd percentile nationally for median household income · 56th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Whitehall's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Whitehall'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 Whitehall's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$205,800Among the most affordablemore affordable than 56% 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
Whitehall's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.5×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#8,971 of 15,516
More affordable than 42% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#7,242 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.5×, Whitehall sits in the moderate band:
national rank #8,971 of 15,516 and #7,242 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
$58,750Whitehall, MI median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Whitehall, 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 Whitehall, MI.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)26.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)13.2%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)58.3%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
2,974
Median Income
$58,750
Median Home Value
$205,800
Median Age
35.5
Poverty Rate
13.2%
Labor force participation
58.3%
Bachelor's Degree+
26.3%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1199.1
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
126.2
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1072.9
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
Whitehall's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
2,920 residents
2021
2,946 residents
2022
3,018 residents
2023
3,097 residents
2024
3,126 residents
2025
3,205 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
44
housing units authorized
Single-Family
12
detached homes
Multifamily
32
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
14.8
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
21
21
0
$3.7M
2020
13
11
2
$2.2M
2021
46
36
10
$10.2M
2022
46
36
10
$9.9M
2023
13
13
0
$3.5M
2024
44
12
32
$10.9M
Permit volume increased 110% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
84.0%
Carpool
7.0%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
2.6%
Work from Home
3.4%
Other
3.0%
Based on 1,210 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 Whitehall. 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 Whitehall 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 Whitehall sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Whitehall 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.