What is the population of Alpena County?

Alpena County has 28,908 residents on Census ACS 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates.

What is the median household income in Alpena County?

Median household income in Alpena County is $51,909 a year, 33.9% below the national figure of $78,538.

How much does it cost to rent or buy in Alpena County?

Median gross rent is $660 a month and the median home value is $137,800, so rent absorbs about 15.3% of median household income.

Is Alpena County affordable compared with the rest of the US?

Homes cost about 2.7× the local median income here versus roughly 3.9× nationally, so Alpena County is more affordable to buy in than the typical US market, and rent takes 15.3% of median income against the 30% cost-burden line.

Historic small-town main street building, illustrating the US counties directory

Michigan · FIPS 26007

Alpena ZIP codes — Alpena County, Michigan

Quick answer

Alpena County is home to 28,908 residents with a median household income of $51,909 and a median home value of $137,800. 79.4% of households own their home and 17% of residents live below the poverty line. Looking for a Alpena ZIP code? 4 ZIP code areas fall inside Alpena County, Michigan, listed in full below.

Population: 28,908Alpena County residents
Median household income: $51,909Past 12 months, inflation adjusted
Median home value: $137,800Owner-occupied units
Median gross rent: $660Rent plus utilities, monthly
Median age: 47.6 yrsAll residents
Homeownership rate: 79.4%Owner-occupied households

Alpena County, MI in context

How this area compares with national benchmarks.

Alpena County is a small city in Michigan, with 28,908 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates. The median age here is 47.6 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 Alpena County earn a median of $51,909 a year, 33.9% below the national figure of $78,538. 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 17% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Alpena County is valued at $137,800, 54.6% below the national figure, while median gross rent runs $660 a month, 53.1% below the national figure, or roughly $7,920 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 15.3% 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 2.7×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 79.4% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans toward owners. Rent is reported gross — contract rent plus tenant-paid utilities — which is why it runs above the advertised price on a listing for the same unit.

All values below were released by the Census for this exact geography, with no gap-filling on our side. 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.

ZIP codes in Alpena County

ZIP code tabulation areas whose land area falls mostly in Alpena County.

How to read this page

What these estimates cover.

Figures are five-year rolling averages from the American Community Survey, not single-year counts, so they describe conditions across 2019-2023 ACS 5-year rather than a single date. Median home value covers owner-occupied units as valued by their owners, and median gross rent includes utilities the renter pays. Small counties carry wide margins of error; treat single-dollar differences between neighbouring counties as noise.

Source: US Census Bureau, ACS 2019-2023 5-year estimates · rates as published for 2019-2023 ACS 5-year

Cities and towns in Michigan

Largest Census places in Michigan by population.

Nearby counties

Other counties in Michigan.

Frequently asked questions

Common questions about this area.

What is the population of Alpena County?: Alpena County has 28,908 residents on Census ACS 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates.
What is the median household income in Alpena County?: Median household income in Alpena County is $51,909 a year, 33.9% below the national figure of $78,538.
How much does it cost to rent or buy in Alpena County?: Median gross rent is $660 a month and the median home value is $137,800, so rent absorbs about 15.3% of median household income.
Is Alpena County affordable compared with the rest of the US?: Homes cost about 2.7× the local median income here versus roughly 3.9× nationally, so Alpena County is more affordable to buy in than the typical US market, and rent takes 15.3% of median income against the 30% cost-burden line.
How current is this Alpena County data?: All figures come from the US Census Bureau American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year five-year estimates. 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.