Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Gaines Township is a solid, middle-of-the-road choice. It grades C+ overall, 455th among Michigan's 697 graded towns, with no subject far below average. Its best mark is incomes: the median household earns $84K. A typical home there costs about $297K, 4.8 years of the Flint metro’s $62K median household income. Most errands need a car: it is less walkable than 94% of U.S. towns. Only 88 of Michigan’s 1,279 towns score lower on the outdoors. Gaines Township’s average trip to work is 32 minutes, against 25 minutes in Michigan’s towns and 25 minutes across U.S. towns.
Where Gaines Township beats most towns.
Where Gaines 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 Gaines Township is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 344 in 1880, 377 in 2020. The archive holds 1 old photo or paper and 3 maps from 1922 on.
2 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Who provides power, water and the rest in Gaines 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 Gaines Township.
Gaines Township has 213 jobs for its 2,757 working residents: even if every job went to a resident, most would still commute out. Jobs based here fell from 312 in 2011 to 213.
Most working residents leave Gaines Township for work: only 2% work in town. Jobs based in Gaines Township fell to 213 in 2021, 99 fewer than in 2011. 4.7% of residents live below the poverty line in Gaines Township.
| Gaines Township | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Below the poverty line | 4.7% | 8.9% | 9.6% |
| Work from home | 7.1% | 10% | 11% |
| Working residents who work in town | 1.8% | 5.9% | 8% |
| Median household income | $84,000 | $77,000 | $80,000 |
Census LEHD 2021 · ACS
Its public schools are run by the Swartz Creek Community Schools. Its one school is below.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gaines Elementary SchoolLargest public elementary schoolGrades K–5 | Grades K–5 | 93 | C |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within MI on state tests and graduation
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 73% of U.S. communities. Since 1981, 9 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Gaines Township.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Gaines Township has chilly, snowy winters and pleasant summers. July afternoons reach 82°, January nights drop to 16° and about 52 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
96% of Gaines Township households own their home. Typical home values rose 5.6% in the year to September 2026.
| Gaines Township | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 96% | 84% | 73% |
| Median rent | $998 a month | $1,047 a month | $1,185 a month |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Gaines Township beats the Michigan average on 7 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 2.
| Gaines Township | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 27% | 27% | 23% |
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 34% | 32% | 33% |
| No health insurance, 18–64 (CDC PLACES) | 5.5% | 6.5% | 8.1% |
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 80% | 80% | 79% |
| What stands out | Gaines Township | MI |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 12.1% | 15.4% |
| Fewer adults facing a utility shut-off | 6.9% | 8.7% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 10.4% | 8.9% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Gaines Township. Close and well known come first.
33 mi MuseumEli and Edythe Broad Art Museum150K visitors a year
13 mi MuseumSloan Museum
35 mi Zoo & aquariumPotter Park Zoo
13 mi MuseumFlint Institute of Arts17 mi MuseumCrossroads Village (Michigan)Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum: Dj1997, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Sloan Museum: Amancour, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Potter Park Zoo: Dj1997, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Flint Institute of Arts: Blueskiesfalling at English Wikipedia, Public domain
3 within 15 miles of the center of Gaines Township
About 5 of every 100 Gaines Township residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Michigan.
2 places in Gaines Township on the National Register of Historic Places.
Village in Michigan, United States
Gaines is a village in Genesee County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 census, Gaines had a population of 377. The village is within Gaines Township.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
7 towns share a border with Gaines Township.
| Town | MI rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gaines Township · Gaines | #455 | C+ | C+ | — | B | B− |
| Mundy Township | #551 | C | C | — | B− | B− |
| Swartz Creek | #405 | B− | C | — | B | B− |
| Argentine Township | #191 | A− | C | A | A− | B |
| Vernon Township | #269 | B+ | A− | — | B+ | C+ |
| Clayton Township | #466 | C+ | C− | A | B | C+ |
| Venice Township | — | — | B+ | — | B+ | C+ |
Venice Township has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. Gaines Township, Mundy Township, Swartz Creek, Vernon Township and Venice Township report no FBI crime data of their own. Gaines and Gaines Township are one community, graded once. Compare Gaines Township with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Gaines Township grades C+ overall, better than 43% of U.S. towns and #455 of 697 in Michigan. It grades B− for health and B 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 C+.
