Sterling Heights, MI population, income and ZIP codes

Sterling Heights city is a mid-size city in Michigan, with 133,473 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #4 of 745 ranked by population — larger than 99% of them. The median age here is 41.5 years against 39.1 nationally, a slightly older profile than the country as a whole. 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 Sterling Heights city earn a median of $78,429 a year, essentially level with the national figure of $78,538 and 27% above the $61,715 median for the 438 Michigan cities we cover. Median household income counts every pre-tax dollar arriving at an address — wages, self-employment, Social Security, pensions, interest and public assistance — for everyone living there, so multi-earner households pull the figure up even where individual pay is modest. Poverty reaches 10.6% of residents here, below the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Sterling Heights city is valued at $260,700, 14.1% below the national figure and 57% above the $166,100 peer median, while median gross rent runs $1,267 a month, 9.9% below the national figure, or roughly $15,204 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 19.4% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is cheap relative to what people here earn. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 3.3×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 76.4% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans toward owners. The rent line includes utilities paid by the tenant, a definition worth remembering when comparing it against a landlord's quoted rate.

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.