Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
St. Joseph Township is a solid, middle-of-the-road choice. It grades B− overall, 369th among Michigan's 697 graded towns, with no subject far below average. Its best mark is schools: its schools rank ahead of 65% of Michigan towns. Expect to pay for it: homes are expensive, about $249K for a typical one and 3.8 times the Niles metro’s $65K median household income. 47% of adults 25 and older hold a bachelor’s degree or more in St. Joseph Township, where Michigan’s towns sit at 26% and U.S. towns at 29%. On the outdoors, just 102 of Michigan’s 1,279 towns do better. The biggest place to walk is Riverview Park, 115 acres with 1.3 miles of trail.
Where St. Joseph Township beats most towns.
10.2% of the town is conserved land, across 8 parks and preserves.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Michigan), ordered by how far St. Joseph Township is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 2,603 in 1880, a peak of 11,755 in 1960, 7,856 in 2020. The archive holds 6 old photos and papers going back to 1886 and 4 maps from 1927 on.
Who provides power, water and the rest in St. Joseph 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 St. Joseph Township.
St. Joseph Township owes part of its health edge to its incomes and sees little violent crime, but it has lost a quarter or more of its jobs in ten years.
In 8 parks and preserves, walkers have 5.9 miles of trail. St. Joseph Township’s concentration of trails comes in at 0.9 miles per square mile.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Riverview Park | 1.3 mi | 115 |
| 2. Eaton Park | 0.4 mi | 28 |
| 3. Hickory Creek Preserve | — | 35 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
The public schools here belong to the St. Joseph Public Schools. One of its 2 schools is below, with the reason it’s listed. 410 students attend St. Joseph Township’s public school.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brown SchoolLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–5 | Grades PK–5 | 410 | A |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within MI on state tests and graduation
The national flood insurance program has paid 13 claims in St. Joseph Township since 1979. Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 78% of U.S. communities. FEMA puts 58% of the town’s expected hazard losses down to inland flooding, and 15% to cold waves.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
St. Joseph Township’s typical July afternoon high stands at 82°F.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Jobs based here fell from 4,384 in 2011 to 3,461.
The top destinations are Benton Township (17%), St. Joseph (15%) and Lincoln Township (5%). Most people who work leave St. Joseph Township to do it: just 7% work in town. In St. Joseph Township, the typical journey to work is 19 minutes. Employers in St. Joseph Township shed 923 jobs between 2011 and 2021, to 3,461.
| St. Joseph Township | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 19 minutes | 25 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Median household income | $95,000 | $77,000 | $80,000 |
| Work from home | 14% | 10% | 11% |
Census LEHD 2021 · ACS
Violent crime is rare: 15 reported in 2025, 1.5 per 1,000 residents.
The property crime rate for St. Joseph Township comes to 6.1 per 1,000 residents. The rate of reported violence for St. Joseph Township comes to 1.5 per 1,000 residents.
| St. Joseph Township | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 6.1 per 1,000 residents | 8 | 9.9 |
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 1.5 per 1,000 residents | 1.9 | 1.6 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Against the 9,300 U.S. towns with household incomes like St. Joseph Township’s, it is less healthy than 61%: its national edge comes with its incomes.
Among adults in St. Joseph Township, 13% smoke cigarettes. CDC measures, 32 in all: St. Joseph Township beats Michigan on 1 and trails on 1. In St. Joseph Township, 16% of adults report frequent mental distress, and 37% sleep under 7 hours.
| St. Joseph Township | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Binge drink (CDC PLACES) | 15% | 17% | 16% |
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 16% | 18% | 17% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 37% | 34% | 36% |
| High blood pressure (CDC PLACES) | 38% | 36% | 35% |
| What stands out | St. Joseph Township | MI |
|---|---|---|
| More adults getting cholesterol checked | 88.9% | 87.4% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 10.1% | 8.9% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
2 within 15 miles of the center of St. Joseph Township
About 3 of every 100 St. Joseph Township residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Michigan.
City in Michigan, United States
Saint Joseph, colloquially known as Saint Joe, is a city in and the county seat of Berrien County, Michigan. It was incorporated as a village in 1834 and as a city in 1891. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 7,856. It lies on the shore of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the St. Joseph River, about 90 miles (140 km) east-northeast of Chicago. The city and adjacent Benton Harbor are known as the "Twin Cities".
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
6 towns share a border with St. Joseph Township.
Benton Harbor next door grades lower for schools (D− to St. Joseph Township’s B+) and higher for cost of living (B+ to C).
| Town | MI rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| St. Joseph Township | #369 | B− | C | B | B+ | B |
| St. Joseph | #179 | A− | C− | C | A | A− |
| Shoreham | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Fair Plain | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Benton Harbor | #693 | D− | B+ | D− | D− | D− |
| Royalton Township | #267 | B+ | C− | — | A− | A− |
| Lincoln Township | #208 | B+ | C | B+ | A | A− |
Royalton Township reports no FBI crime data of its own. Shoreham and Fair Plain aren’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare St. Joseph Township with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
St. Joseph Township grades B− overall, better than 54% of U.S. towns and #369 of 697 in Michigan. It grades B for health, B for safety and B+ 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 C.