Grand Traverse County, MI

County Profile

96,166 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Grand Traverse County, MI.

Several figures AreaProfile publishes are measured by county and nowhere finer — death rates by intent among them. On this page those describe the geography they are printed on, which is not true of the city and ZIP pages that inherit them.

66out of 100
Area Score
Top 36% of 1,225 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity688th of 1,255 counties measured54
SchoolsTop 23% of 973 counties measured72
Growth780th of 1,226 counties measured43
Housing affordability871st of 1,255 counties measured85
Climate938th of 1,254 counties measured61
Physical resilienceTop 1% of 1,255 counties measured97
Access1218th of 1,255 counties measured12
Economic stabilityTop 36% of 1,255 counties measured71
The quick read

Residential permitting has slowed: 588 units authorized over the past twelve months, 34% below the prior year.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published profiles, placing Grand Traverse County in the top 1% for physical resilience.

The nearest major airport is 101 miles away, which is farther than most measured US locations.

At a glance

Population
96,166
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$81,647
Top 16% nationally
Density
207/sq mi
464.3 sq mi of land
Median age
43.5
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Grand Traverse County
Michigan
Metro area
Traverse City, MI
Nearest major airport
APN
101 mi · Alpena County Rgnl
Median home value
$339,400
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.6% is lower than 75% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 7.7% over the past year, to 49,715 employed residents.

41% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 92% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$3,008$81,647Top 16%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,435$45,034Top 13%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate9.6%Bottom 22%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute22.0 minBottom 25%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher40.6%Top 8%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Employment49,715Top 45%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-7.0%Bottom 3%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-7.7%Bottom 1%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force51,545Top 45%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force participation64.0%Top 22%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.5%Bottom 20%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate3.6%Bottom 25%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/065.33.1
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 3.6% in June 2026. A break in the line is a month the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish for this area — it is left empty rather than estimated.
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202482k69k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $81,647 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.
Largest occupations — Traverse City, MI
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Retail Salespersons2,390$34,540
Registered Nurses2,020$83,690
Cashiers1,850$30,920
Fast Food and Counter Workers1,730$28,560
Office Clerks, General1,650$44,470
Waiters and Waitresses1,610$41,380

Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

45% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 59% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 16.8 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
31
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
16.8
across all schools here
Math proficiency
45.5%
Top 16% in Michigan
Reading proficiency
58.5%
Top 16% in Michigan
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
West Senior HighTraverse City Area Public Schools1,38424.7
Central High SchoolTraverse City Area Public Schools1,32623.7
West Middle SchoolTraverse City Area Public Schools1,08120.847%69%
East Middle SchoolTraverse City Area Public Schools82920.252%67%
Grand Traverse Academy · charterGrand Traverse Academy82415.347%55%
Kingsley Area Elementary SchoolKingsley Area Schools65518.255%65%
Central Grade SchoolTraverse City Area Public Schools51017.656%65%
Eastern Elementary SchoolTraverse City Area Public Schools47519.047%57%
Willow Hill Elementary SchoolTraverse City Area Public Schools42918.760%68%
Kingsley Area High SchoolKingsley Area Schools40116.0
Kingsley Area Middle SchoolKingsley Area Schools36616.642%66%
Westwoods Elementary SchoolTraverse City Area Public Schools36518.346%50%

31.6% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with rather than how the schools perform, which is why AreaProfile shows it and does not score it.

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against Michigan’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $1,288 takes 19% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.2 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
18.9%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.2×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,288
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$339,400
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income4.16Top 18%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate77.2%Top 35%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±8447,003Top 18%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$65$1,288Top 13%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$8,651$339,400Top 14%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income18.9%Top 29%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate14.3%Top 50%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →
Development Momentum
43/ 100
Ranks 780 of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing, measured from 2022 to 2025.

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

Population has grown 1% since 2020, reaching 96,625 in 2024.

Permitting has turned downward after moving the other way the year before.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 16% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 6.1 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
588
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
6.1
Top 22% nationally
Year over year
−34%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
16.2%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202497k95k
Census Population Estimates Program, July 1 of each year. These annual estimates are designed for year-over-year comparison, unlike the ACS five-year figure shown as this profile's population.
Housing units permitted per year
2022202320242025883468
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2022 (+12%).

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 81°F and January a low of 17°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 29.1 inches.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station TRAVERSE CITY CHERRY CPTL AP, 2.1 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND3.6"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation29.1"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low17°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high81°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing47°F1991-2020 Normals

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today.

Physical risk

97 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are cold wave and strong wind.

Cold waveModerate
Strong windModerate

Low or minimal exposure: winter weather, landslide, lightning, inland flooding, hail, tornado, heat wave, coastal flooding, wildfire, hurricane, earthquake, ice storm.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA National Risk Index county record. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences — they say nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Grand Traverse County records 2.2 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, lower than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 8.8 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 14.5 per 100,000 residents in Grand Traverse County.

Homicide
2.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
8.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
14.5
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
10.4
per 100,000 residents

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Grand Traverse County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around Grand Traverse County rather than Grand Traverse County itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
Offences reported to police are published by department rather than by town, and only where a department reported every month of the year. No municipal department reports for this place — many smaller communities are policed by the county — so there is no figure to show. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.
Taxes and full cost of living
No public source publishes either with national coverage and a method open enough to check. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings. Nothing here is individualised tax advice.
Anything about a specific address
Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house. School attendance zones, insurance pricing and the character of a neighbourhood all vary within the places measured here.

Access

No airport meeting the AreaProfile major-airport definition lies within 100 miles; the nearest is 101 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Alpena County RgnlAPN101 mi9,001 ft
Oscoda/WurtsmithOSC108 mi11,801 ft
Mbs IntlMBS110 mi8,002 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

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Area Score
66
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Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2019-20 school year; 2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.

Cities in Grand Traverse County, MI