City safety & data profile

East LansingMI

East Lansing, MI is a 48K-resident city in Ingham County with a median household income of $45,687.

Ingham County, Michigan. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for East Lansing, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. East Lansing has a population larger than 78% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $270,800, and 1 hospital serving the surrounding area.

Data updated 2026-09-04

48K
Population (place)
Top 22%
By size
$45,687
Median income (place)
$270,800
Median home (place)
33%
Poverty rate (place)
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The read on East Lansing

East Lansing posts a median household income higher than 5% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 1 hospital serves the East Lansing area.

Bottom 6%
by median income, US cities
1
hospital in & near East Lansing

Where East Lansing income ranks nationally

Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)

$45,687 Bottom 5% higher than 5% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles

East Lansing $0 $260,000 every profiled place, bucketed by value

Each bar is a $20K-wide band; taller bars hold more places Areazine profiles. 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, American Community Survey (place-level) · 2024 ACS 5-year

Largest cities in MI

Population among 105 MI places with 10,000+ residents and ACS income on Areazine. Tooltip shows the income rank in the same pool.

residents

What this shows Detroit is the largest MI city on this list; Beverly Hills leads median income.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) As of 2024 ACS 5-year

Highest median incomes in MI

Median household income among the same 105-city pool. Tooltip shows the population rank.

median

What this shows Beverly Hills posts the highest place-level median income in MI; Detroit is largest by headcount.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) As of 2024 ACS 5-year

The quick read

Reading East Lansing, MI beyond the headline numbers

East Lansing sits inside Ingham County, Michigan, at roughly 42.74°N, -84.48°W. Population 48,471, $45,687 median household income. Median home value $270,800, median rent $1,171. Poverty rate 33%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.

1 hospital in/around East Lansing, 0 with an ER.

33% of East Lansing, MI residents live below the poverty line, placing it in the hardest-hit quarter of reporting cities. Read every median on this page against that: half the households are above it, and a large minority are far below.

The median home in East Lansing costs around 5.9 times what a median household earns in a year -- the most expensive quarter of reporting cities, and far enough ahead of local pay that ownership is largely closed to median earners.

21% of East Lansing workers report working from home, the highest quarter of reporting cities. Where that share runs this high, local income increasingly reflects employers located somewhere else.

Among the CDC measures on this page, frequent mental distress departs furthest from its peer median: 25.1% in East Lansing, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.

4.7% of East Lansing workers commute by public transit, a larger share than at least three quarters of reporting cities.

East Lansing's median age is 21.3 years, in the youngest quarter of reporting cities.

Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for East Lansing from FEMA, NOAA, FDA, and CPSC. Economic comparison bars use the unweighted average across tracked Census places with a reported value, not a household-weighted national median.

Population (place)
48,471
East Lansing · Census Place
Median Income (place)
$45,687
-49% vs avg
Median Home Value (place)
$270,800
-35% vs avg
Median Age (place)
21.3
years · ACS place

10-Year Trends 2013–2024

County-level trend (Ingham County): East Lansing's own historical series isn't separately published by the Census Bureau, so these year-over-year figures track the surrounding county, not the city alone.

20132024
Population
284K+1%
Median Income
$65,526+45%
Median Home Value
$198,800+65%
Poverty Rate
16.7%-24%
Unemployment
6.2%-43%

Economics

Economics indicators for East Lansing, MI
IndicatorValue
Median Rent
$1,171/mo
Poverty Rate
33% +166% vs avg
Unemployment 6.6%
Bachelor's Degree+ 66.6%
Work From Home 21%
Public Transit 4.7%

Population

White 72.9%
African American 8%
Asian 9.1%
Two or More Ethnicities 3.4%

Health Profile 15 measures

Health Indicators

Short Sleep Duration
34.9%
Obesity
32.6%
Frequent Mental Distress
25.1%
Physical Inactivity
23.3%
High Blood Pressure
22.9%
Binge Drinking
18.6%
Current Asthma
12.6%
Current Smoking
12.4%
Frequent Physical Distress
11.8%
Lack of Health Insurance
8.1%

Preventive Care

Dental Visit 63.3%
Annual Checkup 74.1%

Other Measures

Diabetes
5.9%
Coronary Heart Disease
3.5%
Stroke
1.8%

What alerts and safety updates affect East Lansing?

No area-tagged alerts are on record for East Lansing right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.

City alert dispatch desk

Sheet MI-EAST-LANSING · East Lansing

East Lansing: no area-tagged alerts on record — state hubs carry the live CAP stream.

  • FEED-QUIET No tagged alerts
  • LEAD-NONE Feed idle
  • DESK-IDLE Awaiting feed

Counts reflect published articles tagged to East Lansing; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse Michigan state hubs · Methodology

Read with this city profile

Tracking Safety Alerts in Your Area

How Areazine tags East Lansing in the CAP feed
All safety guides →

Frequently Asked Questions 6

What is the population of East Lansing, MI? ▼
East Lansing, MI has a population of 48,471 people, located in Ingham County, Michigan.
What is the median household income in East Lansing? ▼
The median household income in East Lansing, MI is $45,687 per year, per the U.S. Census ACS. The poverty rate is 33%.
What is the median home value in East Lansing? ▼
The median home value in East Lansing, MI is $270,800. Median rent is $1,171/month.
What are the top health concerns in East Lansing? ▼
The top health indicators in East Lansing include Short Sleep Duration (34.9%), Obesity (32.6%), Frequent Mental Distress (25.1%). Data from CDC PLACES.
How many hospitals are in East Lansing? ▼
East Lansing has 1 hospital. 0 have emergency departments.
What is the median age in East Lansing? ▼
The median age in East Lansing, MI is 21.3 years. 66.6% of residents have a bachelor's degree or higher.

Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8

Two ACS-derived peer sets for East Lansing, both outside Michigan so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.

Similar poverty rate

Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside MI (33% here).

Gary, IN 33.1% Lindsay, CA 33.1% East Liverpool, OH 32.9% College Park, MD 33.2%

Similar median income

Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside MI ($45,687 here).

Sharon, PA $45,670 Vicksburg, MS $45,781 Binghamton, NY $45,578 Beckley, WV $45,826

Compare East Lansing with another city

Pick a second U.S. city to open a side-by-side profile on population, income, health, and hospitals, the same federal datasets as this page.

Quick picks:

Nearby Cities 8

Okemos, MI 21K Lansing, MI 113K Haslett, MI 19K Holt, MI 24K Waverly, MI 24K Owosso, MI 15K Jackson, MI 33K Ionia, MI 11K
All cities in Michigan → Compare East Lansing vs Okemos → All comparisons → Browse all cities

Using East Lansing's profile

Use this as a starting research checklist, not a verdict on whether to live here.

  • Check live recalls, weather and hazard alerts scoped to the East Lansing area before relying on national headlines. Check your area
  • Read the poverty rate alongside the income figure, two places with the same median can have very different realities.
  • Compare East Lansing against Michigan peers on any ranking lens. Explore Michigan

Population and economics (income, home value, poverty, education) are place-level U.S. Census ACS; health is CDC PLACES; hospital counts reflect facilities in and around the city. County-level trends are labeled when shown.

Data Sources

All data on this page comes from official U.S. government sources. Population and economic data from the Census Bureau American Community Survey (2024 5-year estimates, place geography). Health data from the CDC PLACES program (2023). Hospital ratings from CMS Hospital Compare (2024). Climate data from NOAA. Education data from NCES. Cost of living from Bureau of Economic Analysis. Crime statistics, where referenced on Areazine, originate from the FBI Crime Data Explorer. Housing market figures referenced on Areazine come from HUD Fair Market Rents. Census economics and population are at place geography; some health and hospital indicators are reported at the county level (Ingham County) where that is the smallest published unit.

Every figure on Areazine is published directly from official U.S. government sources, no number is typed in by an editor. City demographic and health figures are compiled directly from U.S. Census (place-level ACS), CDC, and CMS releases, updated quarterly within 30 days of upstream release. County-level trends are labeled when shown. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026.