Alpine TownshipMI
A town of 14,034, settled in 1847.
Is Alpine Township a good place to live?
Alpine Township's standout: natural-hazard risk is low. Overall it grades B, 285th among Michigan's 697 graded towns. It also does better than most on health: residents are healthier than 68% of U.S. towns on CDC estimates. A typical home there costs about $401K, 4.8 years of the Grand Rapids metro’s $83K median household income. 60% of households live in a home they own in Alpine Township, against 84% in Michigan’s towns and 73% across U.S. towns. The biggest place to walk is Wahlfield Park, 280 acres with 1.5 miles of trail.
What makes Alpine Township stand out
Where Alpine Township beats most towns.
95% of working residents leave Alpine Township for work
Where Alpine Township’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2021
How Alpine Township grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Michigan), ordered by how far Alpine Township is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Moving to Alpine Township: who provides what
Who provides power, water and the rest in Alpine Township, and how to reach them.
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 Alpine Township.
The biggest natural risk in Alpine Township is inland flooding, at a very low overall level
Expected damage from storms and floods is lower here than in 95% of U.S. communities. One flood insurance claim has been paid in Alpine Township since 2013. 45% of the town’s expected losses from natural hazards come from inland flooding, followed by tornadoes at 24%.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Alpine Township’s schools rank ahead of 66% of Michigan districts
The largest public high school is Kenowa Hills High School, with 876 students. The public schools here belong to the Kenowa Hills Public Schools. Two of its 6 schools are shown below, with the reason for each.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kenowa Hills Middle SchoolLargest public middle schoolGrades 6–8 | Grades 6–8 | 634 | B− |
| Kenowa Hills High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 876 | B− |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within MI on state tests and graduation
Alpine Township earns a C+ for cost of living
Homes in Alpine Township are typically worth about $401,000, up 5.7% in a year, 52% above the Michigan typical home. The median rent here is $1,172 a month.
Typical home value
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Most of Alpine Township’s workers commute out: the town has 0.7 jobs for each of them
In Alpine Township, the middle household income is $68,000. Only 5% of working residents stay in Alpine Township for work; the rest commute out. The top destinations are Grand Rapids (24%), Walker (10%) and Wyoming (6%). For workers in the town, the share who do their job from home is 7.2%.
| Alpine Township | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 21 minutes | 25 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Work from home | 7.2% | 10% | 11% |
| Median household income | $68,000 | $77,000 | $80,000 |
| Below the poverty line | 11% | 8.9% | 9.6% |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2021 · ACS
Alpine Township earns a B+ for health
Against the 10,314 U.S. towns with household incomes like Alpine Township’s, it is healthier than 86%, so that grade isn’t only a matter of income.
Among adults in Alpine Township, 32% have high blood pressure. Against the Michigan average, Alpine Township comes out ahead on 8 CDC measures out of 32, and behind on 1.
| Alpine Township | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 29% | 27% | 23% |
| High blood pressure (CDC PLACES) | 32% | 36% | 35% |
| Binge drink (CDC PLACES) | 18% | 17% | 16% |
| Diabetes (CDC PLACES) | 10% | 12% | 12% |
| What stands out | Alpine Township | MI |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults who have had a stroke | 3% | 3.7% |
| Fewer adults with heart disease | 5.8% | 7% |
| Fewer adults treating high blood pressure | 74.2% | 77.6% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Alpine Township: snowy winters and pleasant summers
Summer afternoons peak near 83° in July, and January nights bottom out around 17°; snowfall runs to about 75 inches a winter.
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Alpine Township keeps 3.2% of its land conserved
4.8 miles of trail wind through 3 parks and preserves. Alpine Township’s trail network density comes in at 0.1 miles per square mile. Parks and preserves locally: 3, covering 312 acres.
| Alpine Township | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.1 miles per square mile | 0.3 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 3.2% | 4.4% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Wahlfield Park | 1.5 mi | 280 |
| 2. Dwight Lydell Park | 0.1 mi | 26 |
| 3. Westgate Neighborhood Park | 0.1 mi | 6 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Alpine Township looks like Michigan by age
27% of adults 25 and older hold at least a bachelor’s degree, against 32% across Michigan. Age groups here sit within 4 points of the Michigan average. Alpine Township’s midpoint age stands at 36.9 years.
| Alpine Township | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median age | 36.9 years | 42.5 years | 40.5 years |
| Aged 65 or older | 15% | 19% | 18% |
Ages · share of residents
Education · adults 25 and older
Women and men · all residents
53% women, 47% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±2.9 points. Across Michigan, 50.4% of residents are women.
| Alpine Township | MI | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 10.9% | 11.2% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 11% | 10.1% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 9.8% | 9.2% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 14.5% | 13.2% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 14.6% | 12.2% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 10.9% | 12% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 13% | 13.6% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 8.3% | 11.2% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 7.1% | 7.4% | 7% |
| No diploma | 9.4% | 7.9% | 10.4% |
| High school | 32.6% | 28% | 26% |
| Some college | 19.6% | 21.9% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 11.1% | 9.8% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 19.4% | 19.7% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 7.9% | 12.7% | 14.1% |
U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates
Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum and 13 more within 40 miles
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Alpine Township. Close and well known come first.
8 mi MuseumGerald R. Ford Presidential Museum
23 mi Park & preserveNorth Country Trail33 mi Theme parkMichigan's Adventure
10 mi MuseumFrederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park9 mi TheatreAcrisure Amphitheater
8 mi Zoo & aquariumJohn Ball ZooPhoto credits
Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum: Staff of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum, Public domain · North Country Trail: Huron-Manistee National Forests, Public domain · Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park: User Jeffness on en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 2.5 · John Ball Zoo: Gpwitteveen, CC BY-SA 3.0
Everything we know about Alpine Township
Colleges nearby
8 within 15 miles of the center of Alpine Township
About 5 of every 100 Alpine Township residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Michigan.
About Alpine Township
Civil township in Michigan, United States
Alpine Township is a civil township of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 14,079 at the 2020 census. The township is part of the Grand Rapids metropolitan area and is located just northwest of the city of Grand Rapids.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
- Established
- 1847
- Area
- 36 sq mi
- Elevation
- 843 ft
Alpine Township’s neighbors
5 towns share a border with Alpine Township.
All 4 graded towns on its borders grade higher than its B; Wright Township (B+) is closest.
| Town | MI rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alpine Township | #285 | B | C+ | — | B+ | B+ |
| Plainfield Township | #80 | A | C+ | — | A | A− |
| Wright Township | #268 | B+ | B− | — | A− | B |
| Comstock Park | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Walker | #177 | A− | B− | C− | A− | A− |
| Sparta Township | #151 | A− | A− | — | B+ | B+ |
Alpine Township, Plainfield Township, Wright Township and Sparta Township report no FBI crime data of their own. Comstock Park isn’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Alpine Township with a neighbor →
Questions about Alpine Township
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Alpine Township, MI a good place to live?
By most measures, yes. Alpine Township grades B overall, better than 63% of U.S. towns and #285 of 697 in Michigan. It grades B+ for health and B+ for schools.
Is Alpine Township, MI expensive?
Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades C+.