Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 2,821.
Few places in the country grade higher. Resort Township earns an A+, 8th among Michigan's 697 graded towns. Its schools outperform 88% of the state's, CDC estimates put its residents' health ahead of 81% of the country, and natural-hazard risk is low. Its lowest mark, a B, is in cost of living. 51% of adults 25 and older hold a bachelor’s degree or more in Resort Township, against 26% in Michigan’s towns and 29% across U.S. towns. Resort Township's civic life (library use, community groups, volunteering) is stronger than in 94% of U.S. towns. Ernest Hemingway Cottage is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Where Resort Township beats most towns.
| School | Grades | Students |
|---|---|---|
| St. Michael Academy | 9–12 | 31 |
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Michigan), ordered by how far Resort Township is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Ernest Hemingway Cottage is a National Historic Landmark, the National Register’s top tier.
The archive holds 2 maps from 1958 on.
1 place on the National Register of Historic Places.
Explore the history →Who provides power, water and the rest in Resort 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 Resort Township.
Resort Township pairs an A for schools with modest home prices, gets more snow than nearly all U.S. towns and trades workers with Petoskey and other neighbors.
The FEMA risk score in Resort Township is 3 of 100.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Its A for schools comes with a B for cost of living: the typical home is worth about $395K.
Its one school is below.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| St. Michael Academy PrivateLargest high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 31 | – |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within MI on state tests and graduation
16 miles of trail in 13 parks and preserves. Resort Township’s trail density is 0.7 miles per square mile. The biggest place to walk is Resort Township Pioneer Trails, 129 acres with 3.5 miles of trail.
| Resort Township | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.7 miles per square mile | 0.3 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 4.5% | 4.4% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Resort Township Pioneer Trails | 3.5 mi | 129 |
| 2. Cherry Lane Natural Area | 1.8 mi | 90 |
| 3. The Fields Preserve | 1.4 mi | 108 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Its widest gap with Michigan is food insecurity: 9.2% of its 14,262 adults worry about having enough food, against 15.4% statewide.
20% of Resort Township adults get no exercise outside work. Resort Township beats the Michigan average on 13 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 1. 12% of Resort Township adults smoke cigarettes.
| Resort Township | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 20% | 25% | 25% |
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 32% | 37% | 35% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 12% | 15% | 14% |
| Fair or poor health (CDC PLACES) | 15% | 19% | 19% |
| What stands out | Resort Township | MI |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 9.2% | 15.4% |
| Fewer adults facing housing insecurity | 7.6% | 11.9% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 10.7% | 8.9% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
The Petoskey weather station records that 124 inches of snow fall in a normal winter, more than in 99% of U.S. towns. The Petoskey weather station records that about 2 days a year reach 90°, fewer than in 95% of U.S. towns.
Resort Township has cold, snowy winters and pleasant summers. July afternoons reach 78° and January nights drop to 14°.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Resort Township has about as many jobs (1,000) as working residents, but only 69 people both live and work here. Jobs based here grew from 347 in 2011 to 1,000.
Most working residents leave Resort Township for work: only 6% work in town. Since 2011, Resort Township has added 653 jobs, to 1,000 in 2021. 4.2% of residents live below the poverty line in Resort Township.
| Resort Township | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 20 minutes | 25 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Median household income | $104,000 | $77,000 | $80,000 |
| Below the poverty line | 4.2% | 8.9% | 9.6% |
| Work from home | 13% | 10% | 11% |
Census LEHD 2021 · ACS
1 within 15 miles of the center of Resort Township
About 6 of every 100 Resort Township residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Michigan.
Civil township in Michigan, United States
Resort Township is a civil township of Emmet County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The southwesternmost township of Emmet County, Resort Township is immediately adjacent Petoskey, the county seat and largest city in Emmet County. Resort Township also has a shoreline on Little Traverse Bay, a bay of Lake Michigan. At the 2020 census, the population was 2,835, an increase from 2,697 at the 2010 census.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
7 towns share a border with Resort Township.
| Town | MI rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Resort Township | #8 | A+ | B | — | A | A− |
| Bay Township | — | — | B | — | B+ | B+ |
| Petoskey | #41 | A | C | B+ | A | A |
| Melrose Township | — | — | B− | — | A− | B |
| Bear Creek Township | #197 | B+ | C− | — | A | A− |
| Bay Shore | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Evangeline Township | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Hayes Township | — | — | B− | — | A− | B+ |
Bay Township, Melrose Township and Hayes Township have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. Resort Township, Bay Township, Melrose Township, Bear Creek Township and Hayes Township report no FBI crime data of their own. Bay Shore and Evangeline Township aren’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Resort Township with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Yes, by almost any measure. Resort Township grades A+ overall, better than 98% of U.S. towns and #8 of 697 in Michigan. It grades A− for health and A for schools.
Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades B.