Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Big Prairie Township grades D overall, 662nd among Michigan's 697 graded towns, mostly because of incomes and health. The median household income is $53K, and 22% of residents live below the poverty line. Residents are less healthy than 87% of U.S. towns on CDC estimates. What it does well: it has 44 miles of trail. Big Prairie Township’s average trip to work is 38 minutes, above both the Michigan town median (25 minutes) and the median of U.S. towns (25 minutes). Only 126 of Michigan’s 1,279 towns score lower on hazard risk. Hardy Hydroelectric Plant is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Where Big Prairie Township beats most towns.
Where Big Prairie Township’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 Big Prairie Township is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The archive holds 2 maps from 1958 on.
1 place on the National Register of Historic Places.
Who provides power, water and the rest in Big Prairie 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.
Ordered by what stands out in Big Prairie Township.
Big Prairie Township is a second-home town and sends most of its workers to Grand Rapids and beyond, but it carries more natural-hazard risk than most of Michigan (mostly inland flooding).
Big Prairie Township’s trail density is 1.2 miles per square mile. The biggest place to walk is Newaygo State Park, 407 acres with 3.9 miles of trail.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Newaygo State Park | 3.9 mi | 407 |
| 2. Sandy Beach County Park | 1.2 mi | 111 |
| 3. Dragon Adventures Base Camp | — | 4 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
20% of adults smoke cigarettes in Big Prairie Township. Big Prairie Township beats the Michigan average on 0 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 15. 17% of adults report frequent physical distress in Big Prairie Township.
| Big Prairie Township | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 20% | 15% | 14% |
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 17% | 14% | 14% |
| High blood pressure (CDC PLACES) | 41% | 36% | 35% |
| Fair or poor health (CDC PLACES) | 24% | 19% | 19% |
| What stands out | Big Prairie Township | MI |
|---|---|---|
| More older adults who have lost all their teeth | 16.7% | 10.2% |
| More adults with COPD | 11.6% | 8.1% |
| More smokers | 20.4% | 14.6% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Big Prairie Township has 81 jobs for its 871 working residents: even if every job went to a resident, most would still commute out. The average commute takes 37.7 minutes, against 24.2 across Michigan.
Most working residents leave Big Prairie Township for work: only 2% work in town. Jobs based in Big Prairie Township fell to 81 in 2021, 137 fewer than in 2011. The top destinations are Grand Rapids (12%), Newaygo (8%) and White Cloud (4%).
| Big Prairie Township | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $53,000 | $77,000 | $80,000 |
| Working residents who work in town | 2.1% | 5.9% | 8% |
Census LEHD 2021 · ACS
Big Prairie Township has cold, snowy winters and pleasant summers. July afternoons reach 82°, January nights drop to 15° and about 64 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 94% of Michigan towns, with expected losses of about $528 per resident a year; that rating is what its C+ for hazard risk is built on.
The FEMA risk score in Big Prairie Township is 58 of 100. Since 1986, 2 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Big Prairie Township.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
1 within 15 miles of the center of Big Prairie Township
About 1 of every 100 Big Prairie Township residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Michigan.
Township in Michigan, United States
Big Prairie Township is a civil township of Newaygo County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 census, the township population was 2,436.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
4 towns share a border with Big Prairie Township.
| Town | MI rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Big Prairie Township | #662 | D | B+ | — | C+ | D |
| Everett Township | — | — | B+ | — | C | D |
| Croton Township | #623 | C− | C+ | — | B− | C |
| Aetna Township | — | — | A | — | C+ | D |
| Goodwell Township | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Everett Township and Aetna Township have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. Big Prairie Township, Everett Township, Croton Township and Aetna Township report no FBI crime data of their own. Goodwell Township isn’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Big Prairie Township with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Big Prairie Township grades D overall, better than 10% of U.S. towns and #662 of 697 in Michigan. It grades D for health and C+ for schools. Jobs & income is its weak spot, with a D−.
Not for the area. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades B+.
