Polkton TownshipMI
A town of 2,616, organized in 1845. Public schools that outperform most of Michigan.
Is Polkton Township a good place to live?
Most errands need a car: it is less walkable than 98% of U.S. towns. Overall it grades B, 307th of 697 graded towns in Michigan. The median household earns $113K and its schools rank ahead of 75% of Michigan towns. Only 82 of Michigan’s 1,279 towns score lower on hazard risk. Polkton Township’s typical household income is $113,000, above both Michigan’s towns ($77,000) and U.S. towns ($80,000). Eastmanville Farm, at 266 acres with 5 miles of trail, is the biggest park or preserve.
What makes Polkton Township stand out
Where Polkton Township beats most towns.
93% of working residents leave Polkton Township for work
Where Polkton Township’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2021
How Polkton Township grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Michigan), ordered by how far Polkton Township is from typical.
Its grades run from A for jobs and income (better than 92% of comparable towns) to D− for walkability (better than 2%), so the B overall blends very different results.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Moving to Polkton Township: who provides what
Who provides power, water and the rest in Polkton 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 Polkton Township.
Polkton Township gets more snow than nearly all U.S. towns and sends most of its workers to Grand Rapids and beyond, but it carries more natural-hazard risk than most of Michigan (mostly inland flooding).
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lamont Christian School PrivateLargest elementary schoolGrades PK–8 | Grades PK–8 | 134 | – |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within MI on state tests and graduation
For most of its workers, the job is outside Polkton Township
Polkton Township has 352 jobs for its 1,222 working residents: even if every job went to a resident, most would still commute out.
Polkton Township: 2.8% of residents live below the poverty line. Most working residents leave Polkton Township for work: only 7% work in town. Employers in Polkton Township added 199 jobs between 2011 and 2021, to 352. The top destinations are Grand Rapids (14%), Coopersville (6%) and Allendale Township (4%).
| Polkton Township | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Below the poverty line | 2.8% | 8.9% | 9.6% |
| Work from home | 14% | 10% | 11% |
| Average trip to work | 24 minutes | 25 minutes | 25 minutes |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2021 · ACS
Conservation land takes up 3.1% of Polkton Township
9.2 miles of trail in 6 parks and preserves. Polkton Township’s density of trails comes in at 0.2 miles per square mile.
| Polkton Township | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.2 miles per square mile | 0.3 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 3.1% | 4.4% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Eastmanville Farm | 5 mi | 266 |
| 2. Polkton Township Sheridan Park | 1.1 mi | 34 |
| 3. Burr Oak Landing West Open Space Area | 1 mi | 142 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Expect snowy winters and pleasant summers in Polkton Township
The Muskegon Co Ap weather station, 15 miles away, records that 87 inches of snow fall in a normal winter, more than in 96% of U.S. towns.
July afternoons reach 83° and January nights drop to 18°.
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Polkton Township ranks healthier than 60% of the country’s towns
Against the 6,773 U.S. towns with household incomes like Polkton Township’s, it is less healthy than 71%: its national edge comes with its incomes.
Among adults in Polkton Township, 18% binge drink. For adults here, the share who sleep under 7 hours is 30%.
| Polkton Township | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 30% | 34% | 36% |
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 28% | 27% | 23% |
| Binge drink (CDC PLACES) | 18% | 17% | 16% |
| Diabetes (CDC PLACES) | 10% | 12% | 12% |
| What stands out | Polkton Township | MI |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults with diabetes | 10.1% | 11.9% |
| Fewer adults who have had a stroke | 3.3% | 3.7% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Top of a moderate hazard risk in Polkton Township: inland flooding
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 95% of Michigan towns, with expected losses of about $402 per resident a year; that rating is what its C+ for hazard risk is built on.
Since 2013, Polkton Township has seen 2 flood insurance claims paid out. The town’s risk rating from FEMA stands at 59 of 100. Expected losses in Polkton Township break down as 76% from inland flooding and 8% from strong winds.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
More children than Michigan overall
The median household earns $112,708, against $72,875 across Michigan, one input to its A for jobs and income.
In Polkton Township, 16% of residents are 65 or older. Children under 18 are a quarter of residents (21% statewide). Here, 27% of adults 25 and older have a bachelor’s degree, against 32% in Michigan as a whole.
| Polkton Township | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 18 | 25% | 21% | 22% |
| Aged 65 or older | 16% | 19% | 18% |
| Median age | 39.3 years | 42.5 years | 40.5 years |
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 ±2.7 points. Across Michigan, 50.4% of residents are women.
| Polkton Township | MI | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 13.1% | 11.2% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 12.3% | 10.1% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 5% | 9.2% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 13.6% | 13.2% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 13% | 12.2% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 13% | 12% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 14% | 13.6% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 9.1% | 11.2% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 7% | 7.4% | 7% |
| No diploma | 4.2% | 7.9% | 10.4% |
| High school | 30.7% | 28% | 26% |
| Some college | 21.4% | 21.9% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 17.1% | 9.8% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 16.1% | 19.7% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 10.6% | 12.7% | 14.1% |
U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates · in a town of 2,600, single groups can be off by several points
Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum and 13 more within 40 miles
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Polkton Township. Close and well known come first.
17 mi MuseumGerald R. Ford Presidential Museum25 mi Theme parkMichigan's Adventure
34 mi Park & preserveNorth Country Trail
20 mi MuseumFrederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park17 mi TheatreAcrisure Amphitheater
16 mi Zoo & aquariumJohn Ball ZooPhoto credits
Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum: Staff of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum, Public domain · North Country Trail: Huron-Manistee National Forests, Public domain · Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park: User Jeffness on en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 2.5 · John Ball Zoo: Gpwitteveen, CC BY-SA 3.0
Everything we know about Polkton Township
Colleges nearby
1 within 15 miles of the center of Polkton Township
About 7 of every 100 Polkton Township residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Michigan.
About Polkton Township
Charter township in Michigan, United States
Polkton Charter Township is a charter township of Ottawa County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 2,565 at the 2020 census. It was organized in 1845.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
- Area
- 40 sq mi
- Elevation
- 646 ft
Polkton Township’s neighbors
7 towns share a border with Polkton Township.
| Town | MI rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Polkton Township | #307 | B | C+ | — | A− | B |
| Allendale Township | #104 | A | C | — | A− | B+ |
| Coopersville | #325 | B | B− | — | A− | C+ |
| Crockery Township | #25 | A+ | A− | — | A | B+ |
| Lamont | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Ravenna Township | #299 | B | B | — | B+ | C+ |
| Wright Township | #268 | B+ | B− | — | A− | B |
| Tallmadge Township | #181 | A− | C | — | A | A− |
Polkton Township, Allendale Township, Coopersville, Crockery Township, Ravenna Township, Wright Township and Tallmadge Township report no FBI crime data of their own. Lamont isn’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Polkton Township with a neighbor →
Questions about Polkton Township
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Polkton Township, MI a good place to live?
By most measures, yes. Polkton Township grades B overall, better than 61% of U.S. towns and #307 of 697 in Michigan. It grades B for health and A− for schools. Walkability is its weak spot, with a D−.
Is Polkton 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 C+.