Pentland TownshipMI
A town of 2,693.
Is Pentland Township a good place to live?
Pentland Township gives you more for your money than most places: a typical home costs about $134K, 2.4 years of the county’s $55K median household income. It grades C overall, 538th among Michigan's 697 graded towns. The low prices come with trade-offs. Residents are less healthy than 88% of U.S. towns on CDC estimates, and the median household income is $69K, and 10% of residents live below the poverty line. On the plus side, natural-hazard risk is low. 61% of the land in Pentland Township is conserved, above both the Michigan town median (4.4%) and the median of U.S. towns (4.3%). Only 61 of Michigan’s 1,279 towns score higher on the outdoors. Pentland Township's civic life (library use, community groups, volunteering) is stronger than in 85% of U.S. towns.
What makes Pentland Township stand out
Where Pentland Township beats most towns.
Community nonprofits per 1,000 residents
Pentland Township has shrunk 40% since 2010
2,674 counted in 2010 and 1,564 in 2020; an estimated 2,693 in 2025.
U.S. Census 2010 & 2020 counts · Census Bureau estimate, July 1, 2025
How Pentland Township grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Michigan), ordered by how far Pentland Township is from typical.
Its grades run from A+ for hazard risk (better than 96% of comparable towns) to D for health (better than 12%), so the C overall blends very different results.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Moving to Pentland Township: who provides what
Who provides power, water and the rest in Pentland 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 Pentland Township.
Pentland Township keeps more of its land conserved than most of Michigan, gets more snow than nearly all U.S. towns and has commutes shorter than most of Michigan.
Pentland Township has set aside nearly a third of its land for conservation
Its 41,694 conserved acres are a larger share of the town than in any other Michigan town.
The biggest park or preserve is Hiawatha Sportsman's Club, at 159 acres. In 5 parks and preserves, walkers have 121 miles of trail. The concentration of trails for Pentland Township comes to 1.1 miles per square mile.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Lake Superior State Forest - Newberry Unit | 80.1 mi | 40,994 |
| 2. Hiawatha Sportsman's Club | 0.6 mi | 159 |
| 3. Kaks Lake Public Access | — | 3 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Newberry Correctional FacilityLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | – | – |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within MI on state tests and graduation
Pentland Township earns a D for health
In Pentland Township, 28% of adults have been diagnosed with depression. CDC measures, 32 in all: Pentland Township beats Michigan on 1 and trails on 14. Two figures for adults locally: 43% have high blood pressure, 15% have diabetes.
| Pentland Township | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 18% | 14% | 14% |
| High blood pressure (CDC PLACES) | 43% | 36% | 35% |
| Diabetes (CDC PLACES) | 15% | 12% | 12% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 19% | 15% | 14% |
| What stands out | Pentland Township | MI |
|---|---|---|
| More adults treating high blood pressure | 80.6% | 77.6% |
| More older adults who have lost all their teeth | 15.8% | 10.2% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Pentland Township has a low natural-hazard risk, chiefly from inland flooding
85% of Pentland Township’s expected losses from natural hazards come from inland flooding. FEMA expects less storm and flood damage here than in 74% of U.S. communities.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
A typical July afternoon in Pentland Township is cooler than in the typical Michigan or U.S. town
The Trout Lake 1sw weather station, 20 miles away, records that 99 inches of snow fall in a normal winter, more than in 97% of U.S. towns. July afternoons average 76.7°, cooler than in 97% of U.S. towns; January nights average 8.5°.
Pentland Township’s January low stands at 9°F. Summers here are pleasant, and winters cold, snowy.
| Pentland Township | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| July high | 77°F | 82°F | 85°F |
| January low | 9°F | 16°F | 22°F |
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
About one in three of Pentland Township’s working residents commute to McMillan Township
The average commute for its 516 working residents takes 16.6 minutes, against 24.2 across Michigan.
Most working residents leave Pentland Township for work: only 15% work in town. Pentland Township’s mean commuting time stands at 17 minutes, against 25 minutes in Michigan’s towns and 25 minutes across U.S. towns. Also worth knowing: it had 549 jobs in 2021, up 119 from 2011. The top destinations are McMillan Township (34%), Lakefield Township (5%) and Breen Township (4%).
| Pentland Township | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 17 minutes | 25 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Working residents who work in town | 15% | 5.9% | 8% |
| Median household income | $69,000 | $77,000 | $80,000 |
| Below the poverty line | 11% | 8.9% | 9.6% |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2021 · ACS
Everything we know about Pentland Township
Colleges nearby
None within 15 miles of Pentland Township; the nearest are
About 3 of every 100 Pentland Township residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Michigan.
121 miles of trails in Pentland Township
61.1% of the town is conserved land, across 5 parks and preserves.
About Pentland Township
Civil township in Michigan, United States
Pentland Township is a civil township of Luce County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 census, the township population was 1,564.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
- Area
- 107 sq mi
- Elevation
- 801 ft
Pentland Township’s neighbors
5 towns share a border with Pentland Township.
| Town | MI rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pentland Township | #538 | C | A | — | C | D |
| McMillan Township | — | — | A | — | C | D |
| Garfield Township | — | — | A | — | C− | D |
| Lakefield Township | — | — | B+ | — | C | C |
| Hulbert Township | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Hudson Township | — | — | — | — | — | — |
McMillan Township, Garfield Township and Lakefield Township have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. Pentland Township, McMillan Township, Garfield Township and Lakefield Township report no FBI crime data of their own. Hulbert Township and Hudson Township aren’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Pentland Township with a neighbor →
Questions about Pentland Township
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Pentland Township, MI a good place to live?
Pentland Township grades C overall, better than 31% of U.S. towns and #538 of 697 in Michigan. It grades D for health and C for schools. Health is its weak spot, with a D.
Is Pentland 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.