Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 2,660, settled in 1878. 2.6 times the nonprofits per person than the typical Michigan town.
A town of contrasts. Bingham Township grades B− overall, better than 53% of U.S. towns, and ranks 371st of 697 in Michigan. On health it is strong: it is healthier than 72% of U.S. towns. Add incomes to its strengths (B+): the median household earns $94K. Its lowest grade is for walkability. Most errands need a car: it is less walkable than 94% of U.S. towns. Schools are weaker too (C+) — its public schools trail 65% of Michigan towns on state tests and graduation. At about $373K, a typical home costs 4.6 years of the Traverse City metro’s $81K median household income.
Figures: health, CDC PLACES · incomes, Census ACS, 2020–24 · schools, state test and graduation results · home values, Zillow.
Where Bingham Township beats most towns.
Where Bingham 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 Bingham Township is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The archive holds 1 old photo or paper and 2 maps from 1957 on.
2 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Bingham Township. Close and well known come first.
8 mi National LakeshoreSleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore1.6M visitors a year33 mi MuseumMichigan Legacy Art ParkSleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore: en:User:Grod028, Public domain
Who provides power, water and the rest in Bingham 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 Bingham Township.
Bingham Township is a second-home town and gets more snow than nearly all U.S. towns.
Expected losses in Bingham Township break down as 58% from cold waves and 34% from inland flooding. In Bingham Township, the FEMA risk score is 13 of 100, below both Michigan’s towns (25 of 100) and U.S. towns (44 of 100).
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
The share of workers in Bingham Township who do their job from home is 15%, against 10% in Michigan’s towns and 11% across U.S. towns. Most working residents leave Bingham Township for work: only 4% work in town. The town’s mean commuting time stands at 23 minutes. The top destinations are Traverse City (26%), Suttons Bay Township (16%) and Garfield Township (10%).
| Bingham Township | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Below the poverty line | 2.2% | 8.9% | 9.6% |
| Work from home | 15% | 10% | 11% |
| Median household income | $94,000 | $77,000 | $80,000 |
| Average trip to work | 23 minutes | 25 minutes | 25 minutes |
Census LEHD 2021 · ACS
Just over a fifth of Bingham Township adults get no exercise outside work. CDC measures, 32 in all: Bingham Township beats Michigan on 12 and trails on 3. Two figures for adults in the town: 30% sleep under 7 hours, 29% feel lonely.
| Bingham Township | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 15% | 18% | 17% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 30% | 34% | 36% |
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 29% | 32% | 33% |
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 83% | 80% | 79% |
| What stands out | Bingham Township | MI |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 10% | 15.4% |
| Fewer adults facing housing insecurity | 7.9% | 11.9% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 12.4% | 8.9% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
The Nw Michigan Rsch Farm weather station records that 115 inches of snow fall in a normal winter, more than in 98% of U.S. towns.
July afternoons reach 79° and January nights drop to 16°.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Count the trails in 8 parks and preserves and they come to 4.3 miles. The biggest park or preserve is Grand Traverse Bay Underwater Preserve, at 8,529 acres. The trail density in Bingham Township is 0.1 miles per square mile.
| Bingham Township | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.1 miles per square mile | 0.3 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 2.1% | 4.4% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Veronica Valley Park | 3.2 mi | 84 |
| 2. Grand Traverse Bay Underwater Preserve | — | 8,529 |
| 3. Mebert Creek & Greeno Preserve | — | 193 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
1 within 15 miles of the center of Bingham Township
About 5 of every 100 Bingham Township residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Michigan.
2 places in Bingham Township on the National Register of Historic Places.
Civil township in Michigan, United States
Bingham Township ( BING-əm) is a civil township of Leelanau County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 census, the township population was 2,577. The township is named for Kinsley S. Bingham, a U.S. representative, U.S. senator, and governor of Michigan.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
3 towns share a border with Bingham Township.
| Town | MI rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bingham Township | #371 | B− | B | — | C+ | B+ |
| Centerville Township | — | — | B− | — | A | A− |
| Suttons Bay Township | #424 | B− | C+ | — | C+ | B+ |
| Elmwood Township | #224 | B+ | C | — | A− | B+ |
Centerville Township has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. Bingham Township, Centerville Township, Suttons Bay Township and Elmwood Township report no FBI crime data of their own. Compare Bingham Township with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Bingham Township grades B− overall, better than 53% of U.S. towns and #371 of 697 in Michigan. It grades B+ for health and C+ for schools. Walkability 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.
