Boardman TownshipMI
A town of 1,537.
Is Boardman Township a good place to live?
The best of Boardman Township’s subject grades are an A for cost of living and an A− for civic life; the weakest is a D for walkability. Boardman Township’s density of trails is 1.4 miles per square mile, above both the Michigan town median (0.3) and the median of U.S. towns (0.4). The biggest park or preserve is South Boardman Preserve, at 108 acres. Boardman Township has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade.
What makes Boardman Township stand out
Where Boardman Township beats most towns.
98% of working residents leave Boardman Township for work
Where Boardman Township’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2021
How Boardman Township grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Michigan), ordered by how far Boardman Township is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Moving to Boardman Township: who provides what
Who provides power, water and the rest in Boardman 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 Boardman Township.
Very low risk in Boardman Township, with inland flooding at the top
FEMA expects less storm and flood damage in Boardman Township than in 96% of U.S. communities. Of the losses FEMA expects in the town, 41% come from inland flooding and 37% from cold waves.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Boardman Township’s public schools trail 70% of Michigan districts
Its two schools are below. The public schools here belong to the Forest Area Community Schools. Public school enrollment in Boardman Township: 349 students across 2 schools.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Forest Area Middle SchoolLargest public middle schoolGrades 4–8 | Grades 4–8 | 193 | C− |
| Forest Area High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 156 | C |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within MI on state tests and graduation
On CDC estimates, Boardman Township is less healthy than 84% of U.S. towns
Among adults in Boardman Township, 29% have been diagnosed with depression, above both Michigan’s towns (27%) and U.S. towns (23%). In Boardman Township, 20% of adults smoke cigarettes.
| Boardman Township | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 20% | 15% | 14% |
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 20% | 18% | 17% |
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 29% | 27% | 23% |
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 17% | 14% | 14% |
| What stands out | Boardman Township | MI |
|---|---|---|
| More older adults who have lost all their teeth | 18% | 10.2% |
| More smokers | 19.8% | 14.6% |
| More adults with COPD | 10.9% | 8.1% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Most of Boardman Township’s workers commute out: the town has 0.3 jobs for each of them
For Boardman Township, the mean commuting time is 30 minutes. Just 2% of the town’s working residents have a job in town. Employers in Boardman Township shed 40 jobs between 2011 and 2021, to 172. The top destinations are Kalkaska Township (23%), Traverse City (14%) and Garfield Township (6%).
| Boardman Township | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 30 minutes | 25 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Working residents who work in town | 2.1% | 5.9% | 8% |
| Work from home | 12% | 10% | 11% |
| Below the poverty line | 11% | 8.9% | 9.6% |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2021 · ACS
The climate in Boardman Township brings snowy winters and pleasant summers
Expect July afternoons of 81° and January nights of 13°, with about 132 inches of snow a winter.
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
More children than Michigan overall
28% of Boardman Township residents are under 18. Children under 18 are 28% of residents (21% statewide); people 65 and older are 13% of residents (19% statewide). A bachelor’s degree or higher: nearly a quarter of adults 25 and older, vs 32% across Michigan. The midpoint age in the town is 36 years.
| Boardman Township | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 18 | 28% | 21% | 22% |
| Aged 65 or older | 12% | 19% | 18% |
| Median age | 36 years | 42.5 years | 40.5 years |
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 24% | 26% | 29% |
Ages · share of residents
Education · adults 25 and older
Women and men · all residents
51% women, 49% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±4.1 points. Across Michigan, 50.4% of residents are women.
| Boardman Township | MI | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 7.2% | 11.2% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 20.5% | 10.1% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 8% | 9.2% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 12.3% | 13.2% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 13.1% | 12.2% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 13.8% | 12% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 12.7% | 13.6% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 9.3% | 11.2% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 3.2% | 7.4% | 7% |
| No diploma | 5.9% | 7.9% | 10.4% |
| High school | 43.4% | 28% | 26% |
| Some college | 16.6% | 21.9% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 10.4% | 9.8% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 12.4% | 19.7% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 11.4% | 12.7% | 14.1% |
U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates · in a town of 1,500, single groups can be off by several points
1.5% of the land in Boardman Township is protected from building
Walkers can cover 50 miles of trail in 3 parks and preserves.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Pere Marquette State Forest - Traverse City Unit | 40.1 mi | 6,998 |
| 2. South Boardman Preserve | 0.7 mi | 108 |
| 3. Boardman Township Park | 0.5 mi | 91 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Everything we know about Boardman Township
Colleges nearby
None within 15 miles of Boardman Township; the nearest are
About 6 of every 100 Boardman Township residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Michigan.
About Boardman Township
Civil township in Michigan, United States
Boardman Township is a civil township of Kalkaska County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 census, the township population was 1,479.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
- Area
- 36 sq mi
- Elevation
- 1,010 ft
Boardman Township’s neighbors
4 towns share a border with Boardman Township.
| Town | MI rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boardman Township | — | — | A | — | C | C− |
| Orange Township | — | — | A− | — | C+ | C− |
| Union Township | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Springfield Township | — | — | A− | — | C | C− |
| Kalkaska Township | #272 | B | A+ | — | C+ | C |
Boardman Township, Orange Township and Springfield Township have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. Boardman Township, Orange Township, Springfield Township and Kalkaska Township report no FBI crime data of their own. Union Township isn’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Boardman Township with a neighbor →
Questions about Boardman Township
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Boardman Township, MI expensive?
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 A.