Grand Rapids, MI population, income and ZIP codes

Grand Rapids city is a mid-size city in Michigan, with 197,768 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #2 of 745 ranked by population — larger than 99% of them. The median age here is 32.1 years against 39.1 nationally, a distinctly younger profile, typical of places with students, military posts or a fast-growing family population. At this size the Census also publishes one-year estimates; the five-year values used here are steadier and let you compare against smaller neighbours on the same basis.

Households in Grand Rapids city earn a median of $65,526 a year, 16.6% below the national figure of $78,538 and 6% 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 18.6% of residents here, well above the 12.4% national rate, which is the single clearest signal in this dataset that median income here is carried by a narrow band of households.

The typical owner-occupied home in Grand Rapids city is valued at $225,500, 25.7% below the national figure and 36% above the $166,100 peer median, while median gross rent runs $1,191 a month, 15.3% below the national figure, or roughly $14,292 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 21.8% 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 3.4×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 54.6% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans more heavily on renters. Gross rent folds in the utilities a tenant pays separately, so it is closer to the real monthly outlay than a headline rent figure.

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.