Michigan median household income, 2010 to 2023

Michigan's median household income was $69,183 in 2023, up 3.3 percent from $66,986 the year before. The window starts in 2010 at $45,413.

How it is measured

The figure is the income of the household exactly in the middle of the state's distribution: half of households earn more, half less. A household is everyone occupying one housing unit, and income counts wages, self-employment, investments, and transfers, before taxes. It comes from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey one-year estimates, the country's largest household survey, which samples about 3.5 million addresses a year. Like any survey, ACS estimates carry margins of error; at the state level they are small but real, and the 2020 pandemic disrupted collection badly enough that the Bureau flagged that year's standard estimates.

What the curve shows

Medians resist the distortion averages suffer from high earners, which is why household income is always quoted this way. Figures are in current dollars, so part of any rise is inflation rather than purchasing power. Comparing states, or one state against its own past, is what this series is for; over the window shown the figure rose roughly 52 percent.