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Place dossier plate
SheetMI-ZEELAND-MI · Zeeland, MI 5,691 pop · income 19th 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 Zeeland
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Zeeland on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Dowagiac · lowest
38,433
Dowagiac · lowest
38,433 median HH income
25.1% of the leader · rank #1
Williamsport · near
49,363
Williamsport · near
49,363 median HH income
32.3% of the leader · rank #2
Zeeland · this city
49,367
Zeeland · this city
49,367 median HH income
32.3% of the leader · rank #3
Eek · near
49,375
Eek · near
49,375 median HH income
32.3% of the leader · rank #4
Hydaburg · near
49,375
Hydaburg · near
49,375 median HH income
32.3% of the leader · rank #5
Magazine · near
49,375
Magazine · near
49,375 median HH income
32.3% of the leader · rank #6
Saranap · highest
152,821
Saranap · highest
152,821 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 Zeeland 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: 5,691.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Zeeland - the verdict
Nationally, Zeeland sits in the 19th percentile for household income and the 79th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
19th
percentile, household income
55th
percentile, home value
32nd
percentile, median rent
79th
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: Zeeland, MI
Zeeland is a small town in Michigan, home to 5,691 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Zeeland report a median income of $49,367 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 6.4%. Typical homes in Zeeland are valued around $248,100, and the median resident age is 39.9 years. About 30.8% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 58.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 1 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 83% from five years earlier. Zeeland reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 640.5 in FBI UCR data, below the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
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). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,113 per month. Monthly utility costs average around $238 across Michigan, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. 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 Zeeland'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 comparison shortlist to housing and income to population change to schools and households to work and mobility to reported crime; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Zeeland, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, annual population history, matched public-school count.
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
Which cities make useful reference points for Zeeland?
Within Michigan, the closest population matches are Dowagiac (5,677 residents, $38,433 income); Houghton Lake (5,761 residents, $50,861 income); Dundee (5,584 residents, $71,058 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Siesta Key, FL (5,690 residents); Saranap, CA (5,693 residents); Hillsboro, IL (5,693 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Zeeland?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 5.0 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 6.4%, 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.
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.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -101 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -1.8% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 1 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 5 public schools within the city match. 30.8% 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.
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 Zeeland?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. The profile is strongly car-oriented, so a relocation comparison should put trip distance, vehicle access, and household fuel costs ahead of a citywide commute average. The same-state peer links offer a more relevant benchmark than a national label.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 85.3%. 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
4.7%
Drive alone
85.3%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 2,705 workers age 16+.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Zeeland?
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 640.5 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 72% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
551.5
Violent rate
89.0
Total reported rate
640.5
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Michigan average
C-
City profile score · Zeeland, MI
51/100
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 B
89 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share C
30.8%
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.
Poverty rate C
6.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$49,367
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Zeeland profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 73/100 (B) · 89 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 59/100 (C) · 30.8%
Cost of living: 57/100 (C) · 96.2 index
Poverty rate: 56/100 (C) · 6.4%
Household income: 19/100 (F) · $49,367
Where Zeeland sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Zeeland'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 - Zeeland highlighted among 8 peers.Read the chart values
Zeeland, MI (this city): home $248,100, crime 641/100k
Hillsboro, IL : home $95,800, crime 783/100k
Tonganoxie, KS : home $227,700, crime 366/100k
Punxsutawney, PA : home $102,500, crime 773/100k
Dowagiac, MI : home $110,300, crime 4,117/100k
St. Clair, MI : home $241,700, crime 515/100k
Grosse Pointe, MI : home $391,800, crime 2,081/100k
Richmond, MI : home $228,000, crime 687/100k
How does Zeeland compare to other US cities?
Where Zeeland sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income19% higher than other cities
Home value55% pricier than other cities
Median rent32% pricier than other cities
Safety79% 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, Zeeland ranks #58 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 Zeeland 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 Zeeland near the bottom of Michigan's cities
Among the 727 Michigan cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Zeeland ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Zeeland only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#536 of 718
25th percentile in Michigan
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 727
0th percentile in Michigan
Median Home Value
#134 of 721
81st percentile in Michigan
Poverty Rate
#427 of 727
41st percentile in Michigan
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#190 of 727
74th 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
19th percentile nationally for median household income · 79th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Zeeland's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Zeeland'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 Zeeland's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$248,10045th percentilemore affordable than 45% 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
Zeeland's home-value-to-income ratio: 5.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#12,931 of 15,516
More affordable than 17% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#9,784 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 5.0×, Zeeland sits in the pressured band:
national rank #12,931 of 15,516 and #9,784 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median, a comparison flag, not a verdict on any household.
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
$49,367Zeeland, MI median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Zeeland, 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 Zeeland, MI.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)30.8%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)6.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)58.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
5,691
Median Income
$49,367
Median Home Value
$248,100
Median Age
39.9
Poverty Rate
6.4%
Labor force participation
58.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
30.8%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
640.5
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
89.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
551.5
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
5
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Zeeland's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
5,738 residents
2021
5,721 residents
2022
5,694 residents
2023
5,670 residents
2024
5,656 residents
2025
5,637 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
1
housing units authorized
Single-Family
1
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.2
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
6
6
0
$0.8M
2020
8
8
0
$1.4M
2021
6
0
6
$1.5M
2022
2
2
0
$0.5M
2023
1
1
0
$0.2M
2024
1
1
0
$0.5M
Permit volume decreased 83% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
85.3%
Carpool
7.3%
Public Transit
1.4%
Walk
0.5%
Work from Home
4.7%
Other
0.8%
Based on 2,705 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 Zeeland. 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 Zeeland 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 Zeeland sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Zeeland 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.