Macomb County, Michigan

Macomb County is a county in Michigan, United States, immediately northeast of Detroit, its
southern edge meeting the city along 8 Mile Road. It had a population of 881,217 at the 2020
census, an estimated 879,853 by 2024, and covers 571 square miles (1,480 km2) centred near
42°40′N 82°55′W.

Mount Clemens is the county seat; its postal code is 48043. The county holds 12 cities, 3
incorporated villages and dozens of unincorporated communities across 11 townships, and it runs
on Eastern time. Its FIPS code is 26099.

Towns & Villages in Macomb County

Macomb County contains 15 incorporated places — 12 cities and 3 villages. Michigan
cities are self-governing and sit outside any township, so the Township column below is blank
for them; villages remain legally part of the township that surrounds them. Figures are the 2020
census count for each place.

Two names cause confusion. Memphis is evenly split by the Macomb–St. Clair county line,
so its 1,084 residents are counted on both counties’ books. The city of Richmond and Richmond
Township share a name but not a boundary: the city is independent of the township and sits
mostly inside it without being part of it. Grosse Pointe Shores extends a small sliver into
Macomb County’s southeast corner, but nearly all of its area and population are in Wayne County,
so it is not counted among Macomb’s cities here. Romeo village itself is split between Bruce
Township, which holds most of it, and a southern edge in Washington Township.

Townships

Macomb County has 11 townships — five chartered, six civil — and Clinton Township
is the most populous township in Michigan. Sorted by 2020 population:

ZIP Codes

• 48005 — Armada (also serves Armada Township)
• 48015 — Center Line
• 48021 — Eastpointe
• 48026 — Fraser
• 48035, 48036, 48038 — Clinton Township
• 48041 — Memphis (also serves eastern Richmond Township)
• 48042, 48044 — Macomb Township
• 48043 — Mount Clemens
• 48045 — Harrison Township
• 48047, 48051 — New Baltimore and Chesterfield Township
• 48048, 48050 — New Haven and rural Lenox Township
• 48062 — Richmond (also serves Richmond Township)
• 48065 — Romeo (also serves Bruce and southern Washington townships)
• 48066 — Roseville
• 48080, 48081, 48082 — St. Clair Shores
• 48088–48093, 48397 — Warren
• 48094, 48095, 48306 — Washington Township
• 48096 — Ray Township
• 48310–48314 — Sterling Heights
• 48315, 48316, 48317, 48318 — Utica and Shelby Township

Small unincorporated places such as Broad Acres, Cady, Clifton Mill, Meade, Mount Vernon,
Preston Corners and Sebille Manor have no ZIP of their own; mail there is delivered under the
surrounding township’s code.

Geography

Macomb County sits on flat, low-lying glacial till at the western edge of the Lake St. Clair
plain. Of its 571 square miles, 479 are land and 92 are water. Lake St. Clair, including the
Anchor Bay inlet, forms the county’s entire southeastern edge; the Clinton River is the county’s
principal stream, crossing Macomb, Shelby, Clinton and Sterling Heights townships before
reaching the city of Mount Clemens and emptying into Lake St. Clair. The county borders
St. Clair County to the
northeast, Lapeer County to the
northwest, Oakland County to the west
and Wayne County to the south;
across Lake St. Clair to the southeast lies Ontario, Canada, with no bridge or tunnel crossing.

Demographics

Macomb County counted 881,217 residents at the 2020 census, Michigan’s third-most populous
county, and an estimated 879,853 by 2024. Warren (139,387) and Sterling Heights (134,346) are
the two largest communities, together holding almost a third of the county’s population. Median
household income was $77,837 in 2024, above the Michigan figure of $72,900. Land-area density
works out to roughly 1,840 people per square mile, though that figure masks a sharp divide
between the built-out south, below Hall Road (M-59), and the still-rural townships in the north.

Economy & Local Life

Manufacturing employs 88,701 workers countywide, the largest sector, followed by health care
and social assistance at 61,383 and retail trade at 49,257. The automotive industry anchors that
manufacturing base: General Motors’ Technical Center, its global engineering headquarters, sits
in Warren alongside the U.S. Army’s Detroit Arsenal, and Stellantis runs its Sterling Heights
Assembly Plant a few miles north, with General Dynamics Land Systems also based in Sterling
Heights. McLaren Macomb hospital serves Mount Clemens, and Macomb Community College runs
campuses in Warren and Clinton Township. The Anton Art Center, housed in a former Carnegie
library, anchors downtown Mount Clemens. The county’s best-known annual event is Cruisin’
Gratiot, a classic-car cruise each August along Gratiot Avenue through Roseville, Eastpointe,
Center Line, Fraser, Mount Clemens, Chesterfield and New Baltimore.

History

Macomb County was organized on January 15, 1818, the third county formed in Michigan
Territory, and named for Alexander Macomb, a Detroit-born general who commanded U.S. forces at
the 1814 Battle of Plattsburgh in the War of 1812. Its shoreline along Lake St. Clair carried
Anishinaabe and later French settlement well before the county’s formal organization. Auto-plant
growth after the Second World War, led by General Motors’ 1956 Technical Center in Warren,
turned Macomb from farmland into Detroit’s fastest-growing suburb within a generation. In 1985,
pollster Stanley Greenberg’s study of white, blue-collar Warren voters who had defected from the
Democratic Party to Ronald Reagan coined the term “Reagan Democrats,” a phrase political
analysts still apply to working-class swing voters nationwide.

Getting There

Interstate 94 runs along the county’s southeastern edge past New Baltimore and Chesterfield
Township; Interstate 696 (the Walter Reuther Freeway) crosses the built-up south through Warren,
Center Line, Eastpointe, Roseville and St. Clair Shores. M-59 (Hall Road) runs east–west
through the county’s middle, and M-53 (Van Dyke Avenue) is the north–south spine linking
Warren to Romeo. No interstate reaches the rural north — Armada, Ray and Richmond townships
rely on M-53 and M-19.

• Detroit — 20 miles south
• Port Huron — 30 miles northeast
• Flint — 45 miles northwest
• Ann Arbor — 50 miles southwest

Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW), about 30 miles southwest via I-94 and I-96,
is the nearest commercial airport. The closest Amtrak stop is the Wolverine line’s Troy station,
about 12 miles west of Warren.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Macomb County?
It is in Michigan, United States, directly northeast of Detroit along Lake St. Clair, bordering
St. Clair, Lapeer, Oakland and Wayne counties.

What is the population of Macomb County?
881,217 at the 2020 census, an estimated 879,853 by 2024, making it Michigan’s third-most
populous county.

How big is Macomb County?
571 square miles (1,480 km2) in total, 479 square miles of that land and 92 square miles water.

What is the county seat of Macomb County?
Mount Clemens, population 15,697, postal code 48043.

How many cities and villages are in Macomb County?
15 incorporated places — 12 cities and 3 villages — across 11 townships, plus dozens
of unincorporated communities with no government of their own.

Which ZIP codes are in Macomb County?
Roughly 35 codes in total; Warren alone uses seven (48088–48093, 48397), and each
incorporated place is listed with its ZIP in the towns and villages table above.

Which township is the largest in Macomb County?
Clinton Township, population 100,513, the most populous township anywhere in Michigan and, by
itself, the state’s eighth-largest community.

More counties in this state: Towns and villages in Michigan.