Spencer TownshipMI
A town of 4,288, organized in 1861.
Is Spencer Township a good place to live?
Spencer Township gives you more for your money than most places: a typical home costs about $229K, 2.8 years of the Grand Rapids metro’s $83K median household income. It grades B overall, 316th among Michigan's 697 graded towns. On the plus side, natural-hazard risk is low. Spencer Township’s average trip to work is 35 minutes, against 25 minutes in Michigan’s towns and 25 minutes across U.S. towns. Most errands need a car: it is less walkable than 94% of U.S. towns. Spencer Forest, at 339 acres with 5.5 miles of trail, is the biggest park or preserve.
What makes Spencer Township stand out
Where Spencer Township beats most towns.
98% of working residents leave Spencer Township for work
Where Spencer Township’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2021
How Spencer Township grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Michigan), ordered by how far Spencer Township is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Moving to Spencer Township: who provides what
Who provides power, water and the rest in Spencer 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 Spencer Township.
Spencer Township is a second-home town and sends most of its workers to Grand Rapids and beyond.
Inland flooding leads a very low hazard risk in Spencer Township
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 85% of U.S. communities.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Most working residents commute out of Spencer Township
Spencer Township has 120 jobs for its 1,719 working residents: even if every job went to a resident, most would still commute out. The average commute takes 34.6 minutes, against 24.2 across Michigan.
Most working residents leave Spencer Township for work: only 2% work in town. Jobs based in Spencer Township fell to 120 in 2021, 22 fewer than in 2011. The top destinations are Grand Rapids (16%), Greenville (7%) and Wyoming (5%).
| Spencer Township | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Working residents who work in town | 1.8% | 5.9% | 8% |
| Below the poverty line | 6.9% | 8.9% | 9.6% |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2021 · ACS
| Spencer Township | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.2 miles per square mile | 0.3 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 2.8% | 4.4% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Spencer Forest | 5.5 mi | 339 |
| 2. Cooper Creek Park | 0.6 mi | 128 |
| 3. White Pine Park | — | 52 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Snowy winters and pleasant summers in Spencer Township
Spencer Township has cold, snowy winters and pleasant summers. July afternoons reach 82°, January nights drop to 15° and about 73 inches of snow falls in a winter.
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Spencer Township is less healthy than 58% of U.S. towns
Spencer Township beats the Michigan average on 0 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 1. 29% of adults have been diagnosed with depression in Spencer Township.
| Spencer Township | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 29% | 27% | 23% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 17% | 15% | 14% |
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 15% | 14% | 14% |
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 18% | 18% | 17% |
| What stands out | Spencer Township | MI |
|---|---|---|
| More adults with depression | 28.9% | 25.7% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Everything we know about Spencer Township
Colleges nearby
1 within 15 miles of the center of Spencer Township
About 4 of every 100 Spencer Township residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Michigan.
About Spencer Township
Civil township in Michigan, United States
Spencer Township is a civil township of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 4,163 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Grand Rapids metropolitan area and is located in northeast Kent County about 25 miles (40 km) northeast of the city of Grand Rapids.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
- Area
- 37 sq mi
- Elevation
- 866 ft
Spencer Township’s neighbors
3 towns share a border with Spencer Township.
| Town | MI rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spencer Township | #316 | B | B | — | B+ | C+ |
| Oakfield Township | #239 | B+ | B− | — | A− | B− |
| Nelson Township | #238 | B+ | B+ | — | B+ | B− |
| Montcalm Township | #339 | B | A | — | A− | C |
Spencer Township, Oakfield Township, Nelson Township and Montcalm Township report no FBI crime data of their own. Compare Spencer Township with a neighbor →
Questions about Spencer Township
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Spencer Township, MI a good place to live?
By most measures, yes. Spencer Township grades B overall, better than 60% of U.S. towns and #316 of 697 in Michigan. It grades C+ for health and B+ for schools. Walkability is its weak spot, with a D.
Is Spencer 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.