City safety & data profile
Sterling HeightsMI
Sterling Heights, MI is a 132K-resident city in Macomb County with a median household income of $79,909.
Macomb County, Michigan. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Sterling Heights, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Sterling Heights has a population larger than 95% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, and a median home value of $274,300.
Data updated 2026-09-03
- 132K
- Population (place)
- Top 5%
- By size
- $79,909
- Median income (place)
- $274,300
- Median home (place)
- 11.1%
- Poverty rate (place)
The read on Sterling Heights
Sterling Heights posts a median household income higher than 49% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks.
- Bottom 50%
- by median income, US cities
Where Sterling Heights income ranks nationally
Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)
$79,909 Bottom 49% higher than 49% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles
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.
- Detroit
Detroit, MI
645,705 residents
- Grand Rapids 195,097
Grand Rapids, MI
195,097 residents
- Warren 134,056
Warren, MI
134,056 residents
- Sterling Hei… 132,052
Sterling Heights, MI
132,052 residents
- Ann Arbor 117,070
Ann Arbor, MI
117,070 residents
- Lansing 112,644
Lansing, MI
112,644 residents
- Clinton Town… 99,753
Clinton Township, MI
99,753 residents
- Flint 98,310
Flint, MI
98,310 residents
- Dearborn 95,171
Dearborn, MI
95,171 residents
- Livonia 94,635
Livonia, MI
94,635 residents
What this shows Detroit is the largest MI city on this list; Beverly Hills leads median income.
Highest median incomes in MI
Median household income among the same 105-city pool. Tooltip shows the population rank.
- Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills, MI
$177,412 median
- East Grand R…
East Grand Rapids, MI
$166,610 median
- Forest Hills
Forest Hills, MI
$158,005 median
- Birmingham
Birmingham, MI
$153,510 median
- Grosse Point…
Grosse Pointe Woods, MI
$126,395 median
- Grosse Point…
Grosse Pointe Park, MI
$124,111 median
- Rochester Hi…
Rochester Hills, MI
$120,694 median
- Troy
Troy, MI
$120,045 median
- Berkley
Berkley, MI
$116,239 median
- Rochester
Rochester, MI
$111,750 median
What this shows Beverly Hills posts the highest place-level median income in MI; Detroit is largest by headcount.
The quick read
Reading Sterling Heights, MI beyond the headline numbers
Sterling Heights sits inside Macomb County, Michigan, at roughly 42.58°N, -83.03°W. Population 132,052, $79,909 median household income. Median home value $274,300, median rent $1,292. Poverty rate 11.1%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.
Poverty in Sterling Heights, MI stands at 11.1%, above the midpoint of reporting cities. A median income can look comfortable while a share this size sits well beneath it, which is why the two figures belong together.
The median home in Sterling Heights costs roughly 3.4 times median household income, below the midpoint for reporting cities, so ownership remains reachable on a typical local wage.
15.7% of Sterling Heights workers are remote, above the midpoint of reporting cities.
Among the CDC measures on this page, high blood pressure departs furthest from its peer median: 37.4% in Sterling Heights, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.
Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Sterling Heights 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.
10-Year Trends 2013–2024
County-level trend (Macomb County): Sterling Heights'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.
Economics
| Indicator | Value |
|---|---|
| Median Rent | |
| Poverty Rate | 11.1% -10% vs avg |
| Unemployment | 6.1% |
| Bachelor's Degree+ | 31.1% |
| Work From Home | 15.7% |
| Public Transit | 0.5% |
Population
Health Profile 15 measures
Health Indicators
Preventive Care
Other Measures
What alerts and safety updates affect Sterling Heights?
No area-tagged alerts are on record for Sterling Heights right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.
City alert dispatch desk
Sheet MI-STERLING-HEIGHTS · Sterling Heights
Sterling Heights: 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 Sterling Heights; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse Michigan state hubs · Methodology
Read with this city profile
Frequently Asked Questions 5
What is the population of Sterling Heights, MI? ▼
What is the median household income in Sterling Heights? ▼
What is the median home value in Sterling Heights? ▼
What are the top health concerns in Sterling Heights? ▼
What is the median age in Sterling Heights? ▼
Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8
Two ACS-derived peer sets for Sterling Heights, both outside Michigan so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.
Similar poverty rate
Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside MI (11.1% here).
Similar median income
Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside MI ($79,909 here).
Compare Sterling Heights 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.
Nearby Cities 8
Using Sterling Heights'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 Sterling Heights 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 Sterling Heights 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 (Macomb 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.