Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 3,218, organized in 1850.
Hope Township gives you more for your money than most places: a typical home costs about $232K, 2.8 years of the Grand Rapids metro’s $83K median household income. It grades A− overall, 131st of 697 graded towns in Michigan. On the plus side, the median household earns $99K. Hope Township’s average trip to work is 42 minutes, where Michigan’s towns sit at 25 minutes and U.S. towns at 25 minutes. Most errands need a car: it is less walkable than 96% of U.S. towns. The biggest place to walk is Barry State Game Area, 1,259 acres with 1.3 miles of trail.
Where Hope Township beats most towns.
Where Hope 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 Hope Township is from typical.
Its grades run from A for cost of living (better than 87% of comparable towns) to D− for walkability (better than 4%), so the A− overall blends very different results.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The archive holds 1 old photo or paper going back to 2007 and 2 maps from 1951 on.
1 place on the National Register of Historic Places.
Who provides power, water and the rest in Hope 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 Hope Township.
Hope Township is a second-home town, sends most of its workers to Kalamazoo and beyond and owes part of its health edge to its incomes.
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 81% of U.S. communities. Since 2004, 3 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Hope Township.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Its one school is below.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cedar Creek Christian School PrivateLargest high schoolGrades PK–12 | Grades PK–12 | 63 | – |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within MI on state tests and graduation
Hope Township has 219 jobs for its 1,343 working residents: even if every job went to a resident, most would still commute out. The average commute takes 41.8 minutes, against 24.2 across Michigan.
Most working residents leave Hope Township for work: only 4% work in town. 5.6% of Hope Township residents live below the poverty line. The top destinations are Kalamazoo (8%), Battle Creek (8%) and Hastings (7%).
| Hope Township | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $99,000 | $77,000 | $80,000 |
| Below the poverty line | 5.6% | 8.9% | 9.6% |
| Working residents who work in town | 3.6% | 5.9% | 8% |
Census LEHD 2021 · ACS
23.7% of homes are seasonal or vacation homes, against 5.5% statewide, which helps explain the older median age.
12% of residents are under 18 in Hope Township. Hope Township has grown 2% since 2020, to 3,218 residents in the Census Bureau’s 2025 estimate. The median age in Hope Township is 57 years.
| Hope Township | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median age | 57 years | 42.5 years | 40.5 years |
| Under 18 | 12% | 21% | 22% |
47% women, 53% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±5.8 points. Across Michigan, 50.4% of residents are women.
| Hope Township | MI | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 4.9% | 11.2% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 6.6% | 10.1% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 5.9% | 9.2% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 9.9% | 13.2% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 9.7% | 12.2% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 10.2% | 12% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 26.1% | 13.6% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 21.4% | 11.2% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 5.5% | 7.4% | 7% |
| No diploma | 7% | 7.9% | 10.4% |
| High school | 34.3% | 28% | 26% |
| Some college | 23.2% | 21.9% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 9.4% | 9.8% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 18.4% | 19.7% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 7.7% | 12.7% | 14.1% |
Census population estimates, 2025 · U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates · in a town of 3,200, single groups can be off by several points
Hope Township has chilly, snowy winters and pleasant summers. July afternoons reach 83°, January nights drop to 17° and about 68 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
3.7 miles of trail in 3 parks and preserves. Hope Township’s trail density is 0.1 miles per square mile.
| Hope Township | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.1 miles per square mile | 0.3 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 6.5% | 4.4% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Barry State Game Area | 1.3 mi | 1,259 |
| 2. Hidden Pond Preserve | 0.4 mi | 67 |
| 3. Long Lake Public Access | — | 5 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Against the 8,689 U.S. towns with household incomes like Hope Township’s, it is less healthy than 69%: its national edge comes with its incomes.
Hope Township beats the Michigan average on 4 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 2.
| Hope Township | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 30% | 32% | 33% |
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 26% | 27% | 23% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 34% | 34% | 36% |
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 81% | 80% | 79% |
| What stands out | Hope Township | MI |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing a utility shut-off | 6.6% | 8.7% |
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 11.9% | 15.4% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 10.7% | 8.9% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Hope Township. Close and well known come first.
33 mi MuseumGerald R. Ford Presidential Museum
26 mi Park & preserveNorth Country Trail
24 mi Theme parkAir Zoo
32 mi MuseumFrederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park
8 mi MuseumGilmore Car Museum87K visitors a year32 mi TheatreAcrisure AmphitheaterGerald R. Ford Presidential Museum: Staff of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum, Public domain · North Country Trail: Huron-Manistee National Forests, Public domain · Air Zoo: User:my name, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park: User Jeffness on en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 2.5 · Gilmore Car Museum: Kevin S. Forsyth, CC BY-SA 3.0
None within 15 miles of Hope Township; the nearest are
About 4 of every 100 Hope Township residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Michigan.
Township in Michigan, United States
Hope Township is a civil township of Barry County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As per the 2020 census, its population was 3,154.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
6 towns share a border with Hope Township.
| Town | MI rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hope Township | #131 | A− | A | — | B | B− |
| Rutland Township | #289 | B | B+ | — | B+ | B− |
| Barry Township | #45 | A | B+ | — | A− | B |
| Baltimore Township | — | — | A | — | B+ | B− |
| Orangeville Township | #425 | B− | B+ | — | C+ | B− |
| Delton | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Yankee Springs Township | #202 | B+ | B− | — | A− | B+ |
Baltimore Township has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. Hope Township, Rutland Township, Barry Township, Baltimore Township, Orangeville Township and Yankee Springs Township report no FBI crime data of their own. Delton isn’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Hope Township with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
By most measures, yes. Hope Township grades A− overall, better than 83% of U.S. towns and #131 of 697 in Michigan. It grades B− for health and B for schools. Walkability 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 A.
