Chelsea, MI population, income and ZIP codes

Chelsea city is a mid-size town in Michigan, with 5,420 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #170 of 745 ranked by population — larger than 77% of them. The median age here is 50.8 years against 39.1 nationally, a markedly older profile that usually tracks retirees staying put and younger households leaving for work. Places under 65,000 residents only appear in the five-year release, never the one-year file, so these values pool sixty months of responses and lag the current year by design.

Households in Chelsea city earn a median of $71,702 a year, 8.7% below the national figure of $78,538 and 16% above the $61,715 median for the 438 Michigan cities we cover. The median is the midpoint household, not an average, so a handful of very high earners cannot drag it upward the way they distort a mean. Poverty reaches 3.8% of residents here, less than half the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Chelsea city is valued at $301,100, essentially level with the national figure and 81% above the $166,100 peer median, while median gross rent runs $1,543 a month, 9.7% above the national figure, or roughly $18,516 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 25.8% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is within the standard affordability guideline. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 4.2×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is harder here than in the average US market. 62.6% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans more heavily on renters. The rent line includes utilities paid by the tenant, a definition worth remembering when comparing it against a landlord's quoted rate.

A median age of 50.8 puts Chelsea city well into retirement-weighted territory, which pulls median household income down even where household wealth is high, because retirement draws are counted differently from wages.

Every value on this page is published directly by the Census for this area — nothing is modelled or interpolated. Small-area estimates still carry wider margins of error than state or national figures, so check the linked ACS tables before relying on them for lending, appraisal or legal work.