City safety & data profile
Traverse CityMI
Traverse City, MI is a 15K-resident city in Grand Traverse County with a median household income of $74,087.
Grand Traverse County, Michigan. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Traverse City, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Traverse City has a population larger than 28% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $415,400, and 1 hospital serving the surrounding area.
- 15K
- Population (place)
- Bottom 29%
- By size
- $74,087
- Median income (place)
- $415,400
- Median home (place)
- 12.3%
- Poverty rate (place)
The read on Traverse City
Traverse City posts a median household income higher than 42% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 1 hospital serves the Traverse City area.
- Bottom 43%
- by median income, US cities
- 1
- hospital in & near Traverse City
Composite score · Traverse City, MI
47/100
4 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2024
A transparent index Areazine derives from Census ACS medians (income, poverty, bachelor's share) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when published, not an official Census Bureau or FBI rating. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability rating, not a recommendation to move to or avoid any place. Missing inputs drop out and redistribute weight. How it is calculated.
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS 5-Year Estimates.
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis. ACS 5-Year Estimates.
Median household income vs cities tracked on Areazine; ACS 5-Year Estimates.
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents. State-level rate (per-city UCR reporting is incomplete/voluntary): every city in the state shares this value; lower is stronger on this axis.
Compare against every tracked city: Healthiest Cities in America (health outcomes only) · Community Wellbeing Cities (this page's blended composite).
Where Traverse City income ranks nationally
Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)
$74,087 Bottom 42% higher than 42% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles
Each bar is a $20,000-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
Biggest cities by headcount in MI
Ranked by headcount across the 105 MI places Areazine tracks with both population and income data. Tooltip carries the income rank.
- 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 Heights 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 Township 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 tops this pool by population; the income lead belongs to Beverly Hills instead.
Top earners by city in MI
Median household income across 105 tracked MI places. Hover a bar for its population rank.
- Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills, MI
$177,412 median
- East Grand Rapids
East Grand Rapids, MI
$166,610 median
- Forest Hills
Forest Hills, MI
$158,005 median
- Birmingham
Birmingham, MI
$153,510 median
- Grosse Pointe Woods
Grosse Pointe Woods, MI
$126,395 median
- Grosse Pointe Park
Grosse Pointe Park, MI
$124,111 median
- Rochester Hills
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 leads this pool on median income; Detroit is the population leader instead.
The quick read
Reading Traverse City, MI beyond the headline numbers
Traverse City sits inside Grand Traverse County, Michigan, at roughly 44.76°N, -85.62°W. Population 15,218, $74,087 median household income. Median home value $415,400, median rent $995. Poverty rate 12.3%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.
1 hospital in/around Traverse City, 4/5 avg rating, 1 with an ER. Climate: 45.1°F annual average, 36.2" precipitation.
Among the CDC measures on this page, short sleep duration departs furthest from its peer median: 30.4% in Traverse City, the lowest-prevalence quarter of the 3,852 cities reporting that measure.
The median home in Traverse City costs around 5.6 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.
At 42.7 years, Traverse City's median age is in the oldest quarter of reporting cities.
19.4% of Traverse City 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.
A bachelor's degree or higher is common in Traverse City: 47.4% of adults, the highest quarter of reporting cities -- a labor pool skewed toward credentialed work.
A typical renter in Traverse City, MI pays $995/month, in the cheapest quarter of reporting cities -- rent here is not what strains a local paycheck.
Poverty in Traverse City, MI stands at 12.3%, 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.
Unemployment in Traverse City sits at 5.2%, above the midpoint of reporting cities.
Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Traverse City 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.
The 10-Year Trend 2013–2024
County-level trend (Grand Traverse County): Traverse City'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.
Money & Work
Traverse City's median rent of $995/mo runs 35% below the tracked-city average, the most notable of the economic figures Areazine tracks here. Median household income also diverges: $74,087, 17% below average.
| Indicator | Value |
|---|---|
| Median Rent | |
| Poverty Rate | 12.3% |
| Unemployment | 5.2% |
| Bachelor's Degree+ | 47.4% |
| Work From Home | 19.4% |
| Public Transit | 1.1% |
Headcount
Health Profile 15 measures
Health Indicators
Preventive Care
Other Measures
Hospital Access 1 total
CMS Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating (1-5): a composite score across dozens of reported measures, not a single outcome guarantee for any patient. It isn't adjusted for patient case mix and isn't directly comparable across hospital types, a critical-access facility and a large teaching hospital aren't rated on the same measure set.
Climate
NOAA 1991-2020 NormalsFlood Insurance Claims History
FEMA NFIP, county-levelSince 2016, NFIP has paid out $850K across 30 flood insurance claims filed in Grand Traverse County.
The largest single contributor was 2026-04-Flooding, accounting for 11 claims.
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims, via OpenFEMA. County-level data: individual claims are not attributed to a specific city or address by FEMA.
What alerts and safety updates affect Traverse City?
No area-tagged alerts are on record for Traverse City right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.
City alert dispatch desk
Sheet MI-TRAVERSE-CITY · Traverse City
Traverse City: 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 Traverse City; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse Michigan state hubs · Methodology
Keep reading
Common Questions 8
What is the population of Traverse City, MI? ▼
What is the median household income in Traverse City? ▼
What is the median home value in Traverse City? ▼
What are the top health concerns in Traverse City? ▼
How many hospitals are in Traverse City? ▼
What is the median age in Traverse City? ▼
What is the climate like in Traverse City? ▼
Has Traverse City had flood insurance claims? ▼
Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8
Two ACS-derived peer sets for Traverse City, both outside Michigan so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.
Similar poverty rate
Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside MI (12.3% here).
Similar median income
Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside MI ($74,087 here).
Compare Traverse City 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
Turning this into a research checklist
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 Traverse City 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 Traverse City against Michigan peers on any ranking lens. Explore Michigan
Place-level figures for population and economics (income, home value, poverty, education) come from U.S. Census ACS; health data is CDC PLACES; hospital counts cover facilities in and around the city. Any county-level trend is labeled as such.
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 (Grand Traverse 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 2026-09-16.