Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 4,891.
Ross Township is a solid, middle-of-the-road choice. It grades A overall, 78th among Michigan's 697 graded towns, with no subject far below average. Its best mark is health: it is healthier than 83% of U.S. towns. It also does better than most on schools: its public schools beat 82% of Michigan towns on state tests and graduation. A typical home there costs about $371K, 5.1 years of the Kalamazoo metro’s $73K median household income. 53% of adults 25 and older hold a bachelor’s degree or more in Ross Township, against 26% in Michigan’s towns and 29% across U.S. towns. The biggest place to walk is W.K. Kellogg Experimental Forest, 1,357 acres with 2.3 miles of trail. Most errands need a car: it is less walkable than 76% of U.S. towns.
Where Ross Township beats most towns.
Where Ross 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 Ross Township is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The archive holds 2 old photos and papers going back to 1928 and 6 maps from 1918 on.
1 place on the National Register of Historic Places.
Explore the history →Who provides power, water and the rest in Ross 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 Ross Township.
Ross Township has less food insecurity than most of Michigan and has an unusually large share working from home.
37 miles of trail in 9 parks and preserves. The trail density in Ross Township is 1.0 miles per square mile.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. W.K. Kellogg Bird Sanctuary | 2.6 mi | 140 |
| 2. W.K. Kellogg Experimental Forest | 2.3 mi | 1,357 |
| 3. Fort Custer Recreation Area | 2 mi | 148 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Its public schools are run by the Galesburg-Augusta Community Schools. One of its 3 schools is below, with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| GalesburgAugusta Middle SchoolLargest public middle schoolGrades 5–8 | Grades 5–8 | 302 | C+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within MI on state tests and graduation
Its widest gap with Michigan is food insecurity: 8.4% of its 3,006 adults worry about having enough food, against 15.4% statewide.
27% of adults sleep under 7 hours in Ross Township. Ross Township beats the Michigan average on 20 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 1. 11% of adults smoke cigarettes in Ross Township.
| Ross Township | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 27% | 34% | 36% |
| Fair or poor health (CDC PLACES) | 14% | 19% | 19% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 11% | 15% | 14% |
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 19% | 25% | 25% |
| What stands out | Ross Township | MI |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 8.4% | 15.4% |
| Fewer adults facing a utility shut-off | 5% | 8.7% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 10.8% | 8.9% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
25.6% of workers work from home, against 13.5% across Michigan.
Most working residents leave Ross Township for work: only 5% work in town. 3.3% of Ross Township residents live below the poverty line. Jobs based in Ross Township fell to 959 in 2021, 92 fewer than in 2011.
| Ross Township | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Below the poverty line | 3.3% | 8.9% | 9.6% |
| Median household income | $104,000 | $77,000 | $80,000 |
| Working residents who work in town | 4.8% | 5.9% | 8% |
Census LEHD 2021 · ACS
Ross Township has chilly, snowy winters and pleasant summers. July afternoons reach 83°, January nights drop to 17° and about 65 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 67% of U.S. communities. Since 2015, 3 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Ross Township.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Ross Township's reported crime rate is well below Michigan's. Ross Township’s property crime rate is 2.7 per 1,000 residents. Most reported incidents are property crimes, mainly thefts.
| Ross Township | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 2.7 per 1,000 residents | 8 | 9.9 |
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 0.7 per 1,000 residents | 1.9 | 1.6 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Ross Township. Close and well known come first.
15 mi Theme parkAir Zoo
38 mi Park & preserveNorth Country Trail
5 mi MuseumGilmore Car Museum87K visitors a year14 mi Zoo & aquariumBinder Park Zoo
22 mi MuseumAmerican Museum of Magic
14 mi MuseumKalamazoo Institute of ArtsAir Zoo: User:my name, CC BY-SA 3.0 · North Country Trail: Huron-Manistee National Forests, Public domain · Gilmore Car Museum: Kevin S. Forsyth, CC BY-SA 3.0 · American Museum of Magic: rossograph, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Kalamazoo Institute of Arts: 72elyod, CC BY-SA 3.0
4 within 15 miles of the center of Ross Township
About 6 of every 100 Ross Township residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Michigan.
Civil township in Michigan, United States
Ross Township is a township in Kalamazoo County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 4,851 at the 2020 census, up from 4,664 at the 2010 census.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
6 towns share a border with Ross Township.
| Town | MI rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ross Township | #78 | A | B | — | A− | A− |
| Charleston Township | — | — | C+ | — | B+ | B+ |
| Richland Township | #77 | A | C+ | — | A | A− |
| South Gull Lake | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Bedford Township | #624 | C− | B+ | — | C+ | C− |
| Augusta | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Barry Township | #45 | A | B+ | — | A− | B |
Charleston Township has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. Ross Township, Charleston Township, Richland Township, Bedford Township and Barry Township report no FBI crime data of their own. South Gull Lake and Augusta aren’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Ross Township with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
By most measures, yes. Ross Township grades A overall, better than 89% of U.S. towns and #78 of 697 in Michigan. It grades A− for health and A− for schools. Walkability is its weak spot, with a C−.
Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades B.
