Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
St. Clair Shores is a solid, middle-of-the-road choice. It grades B overall, ranked 334th of 697 in Michigan, with no subject far below average. Its best mark is incomes: the median household earns $74K. It also does better than most on health: residents are healthier than 61% of U.S. towns on CDC estimates. On hazard risk, just 100 of Michigan’s 1,279 towns do worse. The biggest park or preserve is Osius Municipal Park, at 43 acres. On civic life, just 84 of Michigan’s 1,265 towns do worse.
Where St. Clair Shores beats most towns.
Its founding year, 1710, is the earliest of any Michigan town we grade.
Census counts: 6,745 in 1930, a peak of 88,093 in 1970, 58,874 in 2020. The archive holds 6 old photos and papers going back to 1965 and 6 maps from 1936 on.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Michigan), ordered by how far St. Clair Shores is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around St. Clair Shores. Close and well known come first.
Big draw13 mi Stadium & arenaFord Field
13 mi Stadium & arenaComerica Park
11 mi LakeLake Saint Clair
14 mi TheatreFox Theatre
22 mi MuseumThe Henry Ford1.8M visitors a year
12 mi GardenBelle Isle ParkFord Field: Unknown, CC BY 2.5 · Comerica Park: City of Detroit, Public domain · Lake Saint Clair: Copernicus Sentinel-2, ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 igo · Fox Theatre: Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0 · The Henry Ford: Alvintrusty, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Belle Isle Park: WMrapids, CC0
Who provides power, water and the rest in St. Clair Shores, and how to reach them.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Sep 12, 2025.
Ordered by what stands out in St. Clair Shores.
St. Clair Shores reports less crime than Clinton Township or any other graded neighbor, but it carries more natural-hazard risk than most of Michigan (mostly inland flooding).
Most working residents leave St. Since 2011, St. Clair Shores has lost 1,139 jobs, to 12,102 in 2021. At 27 minutes, St. Clair Shores’ average trip to work is where Michigan’s towns sit at 25 minutes and U.S. towns at 25 minutes.
| St. Clair Shores | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Work from home | 14% | 10% | 11% |
| Average trip to work | 27 minutes | 25 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Working residents who work in town | 8.7% | 5.9% | 8% |
| Median household income | $74,000 | $77,000 | $80,000 |
Census LEHD 2021 · ACS
Two of its 20 schools are below, each with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jefferson Middle SchoolLargest public middle schoolGrades 6–8 | Grades 6–8 | 990 | B |
| Lakeview High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 1,319 | B+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within MI on state tests and graduation
Clair Shores has chilly winters and pleasant summers. July afternoons reach 82°, January nights drop to 20° and about 28 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
2.1 miles of trail in 9 parks and preserves. At 0.2 miles per square mile, St. Clair Shores’ trail density is against 0.3 in Michigan’s towns and 0.4 across U.S. towns.
| St. Clair Shores | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.2 miles per square mile | 0.3 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 2.7% | 4.4% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Memorial Park | 1 mi | 13 |
| 2. Wahby Park | 0.4 mi | 5 |
| 3. Osius Municipal Park | 0.2 mi | 43 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
82% of St. Clair Shores adults had a checkup this year. Clair Shores beats the Michigan average on 7 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 1. 27% of St. Clair Shores adults have been diagnosed with depression.
| St. Clair Shores | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 82% | 80% | 79% |
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 27% | 27% | 23% |
| Binge drink (CDC PLACES) | 17% | 17% | 16% |
| No health insurance, 18–64 (CDC PLACES) | 5.6% | 6.5% | 8.1% |
| What stands out | St. Clair Shores | MI |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 12% | 15.4% |
| Fewer adults without reliable transportation | 6.7% | 8.3% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 10% | 8.9% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
The typical St. Clair Shores home is worth about $228,000, up 2.2% in a year, 14% below the Michigan typical home.
| St. Clair Shores | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 83% | 84% | 73% |
| Median rent | $1,183 a month | $1,045 a month | $1,185 a month |
Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
No broad age group is more than 4 points off the Michigan average. 18% of residents are under 18 in St. Clair Shores. 30% of adults 25 and older have a bachelor’s degree or more, vs 32% across Michigan.
| St. Clair Shores | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 18 | 18% | 21% | 22% |
| Aged 65 or older | 22% | 19% | 18% |
| Median age | 43.8 years | 42.5 years | 40.5 years |
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 30% | 26% | 29% |
50.3% women, 49.7% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±0.9 points. Across Michigan, 50.4% of residents are women. Median age: women 44.5, men 43.2.
| St. Clair Shores | MI | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 10.5% | 11.2% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 7.1% | 10.1% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 5.4% | 9.2% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 15.3% | 13.2% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 13.4% | 12.2% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 10.5% | 12% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 15.7% | 13.6% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 13.4% | 11.2% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 8.7% | 7.4% | 7% |
| No diploma | 5% | 7.9% | 10.4% |
| High school | 28.3% | 28% | 26% |
| Some college | 25.9% | 21.9% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 11.1% | 9.8% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 19.7% | 19.7% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 10% | 12.7% | 14.1% |
U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 93% of Michigan towns, with expected losses of about $356 per resident a year; that rating is what its C+ for hazard risk is built on.
St. Clair Shores’ FEMA risk score is 55 of 100. Since 1981, 278 flood insurance claims have been paid out in St. Clair Shores.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Its B− tops all 3 graded towns on its borders; Clinton Township (C) comes closest.
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
9 within 15 miles of the center of St. Clair Shores
About 5 of every 100 St. Clair Shores residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Michigan.
Where St. Clair Shores’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2021
13 notable people were born in St. Clair Shores.
City in Michigan, United States
St. Clair Shores is a city in Macomb County in the U.S. state of Michigan. An inner-ring suburb of Detroit, St. Clair Shores is located roughly 14 miles (22.5 km) northeast of downtown Detroit. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 58,874.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
4 towns share a border with St. Clair Shores.
| Town | MI rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| St. Clair Shores | #334 | B | B− | B− | B | B |
| Roseville | #650 | D | B− | D | C | C− |
| Eastpointe | #687 | D− | B− | D | D | D |
| Clinton Township | #440 | C+ | C+ | C | A− | C+ |
| Village of Grosse Pointe Shores | #53 | A | C | — | A | A+ |
Village of Grosse Pointe Shores reports no FBI crime data of its own. Compare St. Clair Shores with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
By most measures, yes. St. Clair Shores grades B overall, better than 58% of U.S. towns and #334 of 697 in Michigan. It grades B for health, B− for safety and B for schools.
Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades B−.
St. 13 notable people were born here, including Geoffrey Marcy and Donald Patrick Harvey.
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