Watervliet, MI population, income and ZIP codes

Watervliet city is a small town in Michigan, with 1,879 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #324 of 745 ranked by population — larger than 56% of them. The median age here is 29.9 years against 39.1 nationally, a distinctly younger profile, typical of places with students, military posts or a fast-growing family population. At this population the ACS sample is small, so the margin of error around every dollar figure below is wide — treat the numbers as a band, not a point, and expect them to move between annual releases without the place itself changing.

Households in Watervliet city earn a median of $57,477 a year, 26.8% below the national figure of $78,538 and 7% below 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 18.2% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Watervliet city is valued at $130,000, 57.2% below the national figure and 22% below the $166,100 peer median, while median gross rent runs $838 a month, 40.4% below the national figure, or roughly $10,056 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 17.5% 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 2.3×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so purchase prices are unusually low against local pay, the pattern in places where supply is plentiful and wage growth has been flat. 66.2% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans toward owners. Gross rent folds in the utilities a tenant pays separately, so it is closer to the real monthly outlay than a headline rent figure.

A median age of 29.9 means a large student or early-career population; income medians in places like this understate household resources, since many residents are supported from outside the address.

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.