Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Bad Axe gives you more for your money than most places: a typical home costs about $181K, 3.1 years of the county’s $59K median household income. It grades C+ overall, ranked 472nd of 697 in Michigan. The low prices come with trade-offs. The median household income is $45K, and 20% of residents live below the poverty line, and residents are less healthy than 90% of U.S. towns on CDC estimates. On the plus side, natural-hazard risk is low. On walkability, just 41 of Michigan’s 1,279 towns do better. Bad Axe's civic life (library use, community groups, volunteering) is stronger than in 92% of U.S. towns. The biggest park or preserve is Huron County Fairgrounds, at 53 acres.
Where Bad Axe beats most towns.
Where Bad Axe’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2021
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Michigan), ordered by how far Bad Axe is from typical.
Its grades run from A+ for hazard risk (better than 96% of comparable towns) to D for jobs and income (better than 9%), so the C+ overall blends very different results.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 190 in 1880, 3,021 in 2020. The archive holds 10 old photos and papers going back to 1904 and a map from 1954 on.
Who provides power, water and the rest in Bad Axe, 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.
Ordered by what stands out in Bad Axe.
Bad Axe draws workers from Colfax Township and beyond and is healthier than towns with similar incomes.
2,537 jobs are based in Bad Axe, 2.1 for every working resident, so most of the people who work here commute in.
About one in 4 of Bad Axe’s working residents works in town. At $45,000, Bad Axe’s median household income is below both the Michigan town median ($77,000) and the median of U.S. towns ($80,000). The average trip to work in Bad Axe is 22 minutes.
| Bad Axe | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Working residents who work in town | 25% | 5.9% | 8% |
| Median household income | $45,000 | $77,000 | $80,000 |
| Average trip to work | 22 minutes | 25 minutes | 25 minutes |
Census LEHD 2021 · ACS
Its public schools are run by the Bad Axe Public Schools. Two of its 4 schools are below, each with why it’s listed. The largest public high school is Bad Axe High School, with 336 students.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bad Axe Middle SchoolLargest public elementary schoolGrades 3–6 | Grades 3–6 | 227 | B− |
| Bad Axe High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 7–12 | Grades 7–12 | 336 | B |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within MI on state tests and graduation
Against the 3,889 U.S. towns with household incomes like Bad Axe’s, it is less healthy than 63%, so its D isn’t only a matter of income.
18% of Bad Axe adults report frequent physical distress, against 14% in Michigan’s towns and 14% across U.S. towns. 19% of adults smoke cigarettes in Bad Axe. Bad Axe beats the Michigan average on 0 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 13.
| Bad Axe | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 18% | 14% | 14% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 19% | 15% | 14% |
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 32% | 25% | 25% |
| Diabetes (CDC PLACES) | 15% | 12% | 12% |
| What stands out | Bad Axe | MI |
|---|---|---|
| More older adults who have lost all their teeth | 19.6% | 10.2% |
| More adults with COPD | 12% | 8.1% |
| More adults with heart disease | 9.4% | 7% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 93% of U.S. communities.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
57% of Bad Axe households own their home. The typical Bad Axe home is worth about $181,000, up 2.2% in a year, 31% below the Michigan typical home. Bad Axe’s median rent is $742 a month.
| Bad Axe | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 57% | 84% | 73% |
| Median rent | $742 a month | $1,047 a month | $1,185 a month |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Bad Axe has cold, snowy winters and pleasant summers. July afternoons reach 80°, January nights drop to 15° and about 43 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
| Bad Axe | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conserved land | 3% | 4.4% | 4.3% |
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.4 miles per square mile | 0.3 | 0.4 |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Bad Axe City Park | 0.7 mi | 35 |
| 2. Huron County Fairgrounds | — | 53 |
| 3. Wilcox Park | — | 10 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
None within 15 miles of Bad Axe; the nearest are
About 0 of every 100 Bad Axe residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Michigan.
5 notable people were born in Bad Axe.
City in Michigan, United States
Bad Axe is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Huron County in the Thumb region of the Lower Peninsula. The population was 3,021 at the 2020 census, making it the largest community in Huron County and second largest in the Upper Thumb, after Caro.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
2 towns share a border with Bad Axe.
| Town | MI rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bad Axe | #472 | C+ | B | B− | B+ | D |
| Colfax Township | — | — | B+ | — | B | C− |
| Verona Township | — | — | B+ | — | B+ | C− |
Colfax Township and Verona Township have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. Colfax Township and Verona Township report no FBI crime data of their own. Compare Bad Axe with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Bad Axe grades C+ overall, better than 40% of U.S. towns and #472 of 697 in Michigan. It grades D for health, B− for safety and B+ for schools. Jobs & income is its weak spot, with a D.
Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades B.
5 notable people were born here, including Helen Thompson Gaige and David C. Clark.
