AdvanceMI
A town of 377, settled in 1865.
Is Advance a good place to live?
Whiting Park, at 70 acres with 1.7 miles of trail, is the biggest park or preserve. Advance has fewer than 1,000 residents, too few for fair grades; the figures below are still real.
377 people, and everyone knows the way
In a town this size, neighbors are the best guide. Ask them anything.
Moving to Advance: who provides what
Advance is unincorporated, so Charlevoix County and regional agencies provide most services.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Sep 12, 2025.
The data
Ordered by what stands out in Advance.
In Advance, the FEMA risk score runs lower than in the typical Michigan or U.S. town
Expected losses in Advance break down as 57% from inland flooding and 33% from cold waves.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Advance has 0.2 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
Commuting out is the norm in Advance: 1% of working residents work locally. The town’s income of the median household is $110,000, above both the Michigan town median ($77,000) and the median of U.S. towns ($80,000). Its mean commuting time is 18 minutes. The top destinations are Boyne City (14%), Charlevoix (12%) and Petoskey (9%).
| Advance | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 18 minutes | 25 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Median household income | $110,000 | $77,000 | $80,000 |
| Below the poverty line | 3.4% | 8.9% | 9.6% |
| Working residents who work in town | 0.8% | 5.9% | 8% |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2021 · ACS
Expect snowy winters and pleasant summers in Advance
Advance’s peak summer temperature is 80°F.
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Compared with most of Michigan and the rest of the country, fewer of Advance’s adults feel lonely
Advance: 3.5% of adults 18 to 64 have no health insurance. Only 3 of the 702 Michigan towns we compare have a lower share of adults who report frequent mental distress than Advance.
| Advance | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 12% | 18% | 17% |
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 26% | 32% | 33% |
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 86% | 80% | 79% |
| Binge drink (CDC PLACES) | 13% | 17% | 16% |
| What stands out | Advance | MI |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing housing insecurity | 4.6% | 11.9% |
| Fewer adults facing a utility shut-off | 3.4% | 8.7% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 15.6% | 8.9% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Protected land: 0.5% of Advance
There are 1.8 miles of trail across 1 park or preserve. Advance’s density of trails comes in at 0.7 miles per square mile.
| Advance | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conserved land | 0.5% | 4.4% | 4.3% |
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.7 miles per square mile | 0.3 | 0.4 |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Whiting Park | 1.7 mi | 70 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Everything we know about Advance
Colleges nearby
1 within 15 miles of the center of Advance
About 0 of every 100 Advance residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Michigan.
99% of working residents leave Advance for work
Where Advance’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2021
About Advance
Census-designated place & unincorporated community in Michigan, United States
Advance is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Charlevoix County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population of the CDP was 340 at the 2020 census. The community is located along Lake Charlevoix within Eveline Township.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
- Area
- 2.7 sq mi
- Elevation
- 598 ft
- Area code
- 231
Questions about Advance
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Advance, MI a good place to live?
Advance has fewer than 1,000 residents, too few for fair grades; the figures below are still real.