Empire vs Suttons Bay

A side-by-side comparison of Empire and Suttons Bay: population, income, housing, and more.

Empire and Suttons Bay are places in Michigan. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Suttons Bay has the higher population (587 vs 384 in Empire). Suttons Bay has the higher median household income ($123,125 vs $75,938 in Empire). Suttons Bay has the higher median home value ($524,700 vs $368,400 in Empire).

Population, income & housing

	Empire	Suttons Bay
Population	384	587
Median age	63.7 yrs	69.4 yrs
Median household income	$75,938	$123,125
Median home value	$368,400	$524,700
Median gross rent	$379	—
Housing units	342	549
Homeownership rate	81.9%	82.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher	51.3%	63.7%
Unemployment rate	1.5%	4.4%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Empire	Suttons Bay
Population	263 → 384 (+46.0%)	544 → 587 (+7.9%)
Median household income	$38,977 → $75,938 (+94.8%)	$76,875 → $123,125 (+60.2%)
Median home value	$227,400 → $368,400 (+62.0%)	$365,500 → $524,700 (+43.6%)
Median gross rent	$361 → $379 (+5.0%)	$864 → $1,600 (+85.2%)

Empire

Population

263384

Median household income

$38,977$75,938

Median home value

$227,400$368,400

Median gross rent

$361$379

Suttons Bay

Population

544587

Median household income

$76,875$123,125

Median home value

$365,500$524,700

Median gross rent

$864$1,600

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Empire	Suttons Bay
Under 5	1.3%	0.0%
5 to 17	16.4%	4.3%
18 to 24	0.0%	3.4%
25 to 34	3.1%	3.4%
35 to 44	8.6%	5.6%
45 to 54	2.1%	8.3%
55 to 64	23.2%	11.4%
65 to 74	27.9%	33.6%
75 and over	17.4%	30.0%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Empire	Suttons Bay
White (non-Hispanic)	91.9%	85.3%
Black or African American	1.3%	5.5%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.8%	0.0%
Asian	0.3%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	0.3%	7.0%
Hispanic or Latino	5.5%	2.2%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Empire	Suttons Bay
No high school diploma	1.9%	3.0%
High school graduate	13.9%	15.5%
Some college or associate's	32.9%	17.9%
Bachelor's degree	26.6%	16.8%
Graduate or professional degree	24.7%	46.9%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Empire	Suttons Bay
Drove alone	73.7%	50.2%
Carpooled	6.8%	3.7%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	0.8%	15.1%
Bicycle	0.0%	4.1%
Worked from home	18.8%	24.2%
Other means	0.0%	2.7%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Empire	Suttons Bay
1-unit, detached	88.3%	44.3%
1-unit, attached	2.3%	31.5%
2 to 4 units	1.5%	15.7%
5 to 19 units	7.9%	6.0%
20 or more units	0.0%	2.6%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Empire	Suttons Bay
Poverty rate	15.1%	5.2%
Average household size	1.99	1.81
Mean commute (minutes)	24	15
Median year structure built	1973	1988