Demographics
Shiawassee County Economic Development Partnership actively participates in the seven-county I-69 Thumb region group, the business recruitment marketing activities of the Detroit Regional Chamber and the activities of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. For those reasons, we have figures for Shiawassee County as well as comparable figures by each region and for the State of Michigan as a reference.
Population
Shiawassee County proper has just under 70,000 in population, the seven-county I-69 Thumb region brings the population to about 850,000.
| Shiawassee County | I-69 Thumb Region1 | Detroit MSA2 | Michigan |
| 68,122 | 845,066 | 4,831,806 | 9,986,857 |
Source: U.S. Census Bureau 2019
1Shiawassee County along with Lapeer, St. Clair, Genesee, Sanilac, Tuscola and Huron Counties, Michigan.
2Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, Michigan MSA
Cost of Living
Shiawassee County and the I-69 International Trade Corridor region have a median income that is about 17% lower than the U.S. average.
| Shiawassee County | I-69 International Trade Corridor1 | Detroit MSA2 | Michigan | USA |
| 82.1% | 83.5% | 99.3% | 89.6% | 100% |
Source: U.S. Census Bureau 2019
1Shiawassee County along with Lapeer, St. Clair, Genesee, Sanilac, Tuscola and Huron Counties, Michigan.
2Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, Michigan MSA
Index where 100% = U.S. Average.
Median Home Cost
Shiawassee County has a median home cost that is about 50% lower than the U.S. average. At the same time, a wide range of housing is available, from rental (about 75.3% of housing units in Shiawassee County are owner-occupied) to executive housing.
| Shiawassee County | I-69 International Trade Corridor1 | Detroit MSA2 | Michigan | USA |
| $115,300 | $118,657 | $178,725 | $127,800 | $229,700 |
Source: U.S. Census Bureau 2019
1Shiawassee County along with Lapeer, St. Clair, Genesee, Sanilac, Tuscola and Huron Counties, Michigan.
2Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, Michigan MSA
Median Household Income
Shiawassee County has a median income that is about 13.8% lower than the Detroit MSA’s and about 11.6% lower than the U.S. average.
| Shiawassee County | I-69 Thumb Region1 | Detroit MSA2 | Michigan | USA |
| $54,742 | $50,747 | $63,526 | $56,697 | $61,937 |
Source: U.S. Census Bureau 2019
1Shiawassee County along with Lapeer, St. Clair, Genesee, Sanilac, Tuscola and Huron Counties, Michigan.
2Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, Michigan MSA
Median Age
The median age for Shiawassee County is 42.4 years.
| Year | Age |
| 2010 | 39.4 |
| 2015 | 40.4 |
| 2020 | 42.4 |
Source: Nielsen-Claritas, Inc.
Safety Index
Shiawassee County and the I-69 International Trade Corridor have very low violent crime rate and property crime rate relative to the rest of Michigan.
| Shiawassee County | I-69 International Trade Corridor1 | Detroit MSA2 | Michigan | |
| Violent Crime | 11.9 | 13.5 | 29.5 | 25.3 |
| Property Crime | 13.5 | 25.0 | 30.0 | 28.1 |
Source: Sperling’s Best Places 2019: Crime ratings are rated on a scale of “1” to “100” where “1” is low crime and “100” is high crime.
1Shiawassee County along with Lapeer, St. Clair, Genesee, Sanilac, Tuscola and Huron Counties, Michigan.
2Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, Michigan MSA