ZIP 48135 vs ZIP 48185

This side-by-side compares ZIP 48135 (Garden City, MI) and ZIP 48185 (Westland, MI) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 48135 has a population of 27,665 at 1,820 people per square mile, while ZIP 48185 has 47,618 at 1,511 per square mile. That difference in population size and density alone reshapes how every other metric should be interpreted — a higher-income ZIP with 1,200 residents behaves very differently from one with 45,000.

On income and education, ZIP 48135 reports a median household income of $67,294 against $60,854 in ZIP 48185, with per-capita income of $34,280 vs $36,334. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 15.1% in 48135 and 24.8% in 48185. Poverty rate reads 10.7% vs 12.8%, and unemployment 7.9% vs 6.0% — these four fields alone drive most of the difference in the scorecard grades you will see for each ZIP.

Housing separates these two ZIPs further: median home value sits at $168,800 in 48135 versus $194,000 in 48185, with median rent of $1,150 and $1,166 per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 79.1% vs 56.8%. When reading the comparison table below, focus on paired metrics rather than single winners — a ZIP with lower home values and lower income is not strictly "worse" if rent-to-income ratios and commute times land in the same zone. Every value is pulled from the exact same ACS table so the two columns are genuinely comparable.