Livingston, Oakland, Washtenaw counties have the highest median household income in the Southeast Michigan region. In this post, we examine the median household income by census tract for the City of Detroit, and Wayne, Macomb, and Oakland counties. In addition, the median household incomes for all the communities in Southeast Michigan are presented.  These numbers were based on information obtained from both the American Community Survey and city-data.com, a website which aggregates community data.

 

The three maps above show the median household income by census tract for 2011 for the City of Detroit, Wayne County and the tri-county region. The data was provided by the American Community Survey. As can be seen, Detroit and many other inner-ring suburbs had multiple tracts with household median incomes below $60,001.

While the census tracts with lower median household incomes were mainly centralized around Detroit, there were also tracts in southern Macomb County and central and southeast Oakland County whose median household incomes were between $20,000 and $60,001.

With the exception of the Grosse Pointes and a few other tracts in and around the city, many of the communities/tracts that had median household income values over $60,000 did not border the City of Detroit.

 

The maps above show information from 2009 aggregated by city-data.com; this is a website that collects information form various sources to provide profiles on U.S. cities. According to the data, in 2009, Redford and Garden City both had median household incomes of $16,751, the lowest in Wayne County. Hazel Park had a median family income of $21,469 and Hamtramck had a median family income of $30,346; Detroit’s was reported at $33,754.

Oakland County only had three communities with median household incomes below $35,000; they were Royal Oak, Commerce, and Lyon townships. In contrast, there were 10 communities with a median family income over $100,000. Bingham Farms, at $148,295, had the highest median household income in the county.

Like Oakland County, a majority of the communities in Livingston and Washtenaw counties had median household incomes above $60,000. Barton Hills in Washtenaw County had the highest median household income in the region at $197,830. Handy Township in Livingston County, at $8,237, had the lowest median household income.

A majority of the communities in Wayne, Macomb, Monroe, and St. Clair counties had median household incomes of $60,000 or below.

Next week we will look at the locations of various cultural institutions in Southeast Michigan in comparison to the mean household income of the communities they are located in.