Lake TownshipMissaukee County, MI
A town of 2,851.
Is Lake Township a good place to live?
Lake Township is a solid, middle-of-the-road choice. It grades B− overall, 415th among Michigan's 697 graded towns, with no subject far below average. Its best mark is schools: its schools outperform 67% of the state's. Its lowest everyday mark is in health: CDC estimates put its residents' health behind 75% of the country. A typical home there costs about $230K, 3.7 years of the Cadillac area’s $62K median household income. Lake Township’s median age is 56.5 years, against 42.5 years in Michigan’s towns and 40.5 years across U.S. towns. On history, just 110 of Michigan’s 1,279 towns do worse. The biggest park or preserve is Crooked Lake Park, at 60 acres.
What makes Lake Township stand out
Where Lake Township beats most towns.
Community nonprofits per 1,000 residents
95% of working residents leave Lake Township for work
Where Lake Township’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2021
How Lake Township grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Michigan), ordered by how far Lake Township is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Moving to Lake Township: who provides what
Who provides power, water and the rest in Lake 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 Lake Township.
Lake Township is a second-home town and has a shorter frost-free season than nearly all U.S. towns.
Conserved land covers 9.8% of Lake Township
25 miles of trail in 6 parks and preserves. The trail density in Lake Township is 0.7 miles per square mile.
| Lake Township | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conserved land | 9.8% | 4.4% | 4.3% |
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.7 miles per square mile | 0.3 | 0.4 |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Pere Marquette State Forest - Cadillac Unit | 18.1 mi | 2,000 |
| 2. Crooked Lake Park | 0.3 mi | 60 |
| 3. Clam River Park | — | 12 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Inland flooding leads a very low hazard risk in Lake Township
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 92% of U.S. communities.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Lake Township earns a C− for health
41% of Lake Township adults have high blood pressure. Lake Township beats the Michigan average on 0 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 7. 16% of Lake Township adults report frequent physical distress.
| Lake Township | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High blood pressure (CDC PLACES) | 41% | 36% | 35% |
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 16% | 14% | 14% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 17% | 15% | 14% |
| Diabetes (CDC PLACES) | 14% | 12% | 12% |
| What stands out | Lake Township | MI |
|---|---|---|
| More adults with COPD | 10.5% | 8.1% |
| More adults with heart disease | 8.8% | 7% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 10.8% | 8.9% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
With 0.5 jobs for every working resident, most of Lake Township’s workers commute out
Most working residents leave Lake Township for work: only 5% work in town. Jobs based in Lake Township grew to 492 in 2021, 201 more than in 2011. Lake Township’s average trip to work is 22 minutes.
| Lake Township | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 22 minutes | 25 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Below the poverty line | 6.3% | 8.9% | 9.6% |
| Working residents who work in town | 4.6% | 5.9% | 8% |
| Median household income | $73,000 | $77,000 | $80,000 |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2021 · ACS
Lake Township stands out in Michigan and nationally: a smaller share of its residents are under 18
34.9% 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 Lake Township. Adults 35 to 64 are 49% of residents (38% statewide); children under 18 are 12% of residents (21% statewide). 27% of residents are 65 or older in Lake Township.
| Lake Township | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 18 | 12% | 21% | 22% |
| Aged 65 or older | 27% | 19% | 18% |
Ages · share of residents
Education · adults 25 and older
Women and men · all residents
48% women, 52% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±3.2 points. Across Michigan, 50.4% of residents are women.
| Lake Township | MI | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 5% | 11.2% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 6.6% | 10.1% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 5.4% | 9.2% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 7.9% | 13.2% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 11.2% | 12.2% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 11.6% | 12% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 25.7% | 13.6% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 14.6% | 11.2% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 12% | 7.4% | 7% |
| No diploma | 6.7% | 7.9% | 10.4% |
| High school | 36.8% | 28% | 26% |
| Some college | 18.7% | 21.9% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 11% | 9.8% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 16.3% | 19.7% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 10.7% | 12.7% | 14.1% |
U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates · in a town of 2,900, single groups can be off by several points
Snowy winters and pleasant summers in Lake Township
The Lake City Exp Farm weather station records that the frost-free season runs about 125 days, shorter than in 96% of U.S. towns.
Lake Township has cold, snowy winters and pleasant summers. July afternoons reach 81°, January nights drop to 12° and about 74 inches of snow falls in a winter.
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Everything we know about Lake Township
Colleges nearby
None within 15 miles of Lake Township; the nearest are
About 2 of every 100 Lake Township residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Michigan.
About Lake Township
Civil township in Michigan, United States
Lake Township is a civil township of Missaukee County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 2,827 at the 2020 census, which makes it the county's most-populated municipality.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
- Area
- 36 sq mi
- Elevation
- 1,253 ft
Lake Township’s neighbors
5 towns share a border with Lake Township.
| Town | MI rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lake Township | #415 | B− | B | — | B+ | C− |
| Lake City | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Haring Township | #302 | B | B+ | — | B+ | C |
| Caldwell Township | — | — | B− | — | B | C− |
| Richland Township | — | — | A− | — | A− | C+ |
| Reeder Township | — | — | A− | — | B+ | C |
Caldwell Township, Richland Township and Reeder Township have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. Lake Township, Haring Township, Caldwell Township, Richland Township and Reeder Township report no FBI crime data of their own. Lake City isn’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Lake Township with a neighbor →
Questions about Lake Township
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Lake Township, MI a good place to live?
Lake Township grades B− overall, better than 47% of U.S. towns and #415 of 697 in Michigan. It grades C− for health and B+ for schools. Health is its weak spot, with a C−.
Is Lake Township, MI expensive?
Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades B.