Alpena and Crawford counties lead Michigan at 16.9% of adults divorced; Washtenaw and Ottawa are lowest at 8.2%

Picture a diner in a northern Michigan county seat on a winter morning. Around the counter are retirees who have lived there for decades, a few people on their second marriage, a widower, a newly divorced mom grabbing coffee before her shift. It is easy to look around and decide that “everyone up here is divorced.” The county data tells a more interesting story.

Alpena and Crawford counties have Michigan’s highest divorced share at 16.9%

To map divorce by county, Michigan’s 83 counties were ranked by the share of residents 15 and older who are currently divorced. Alpena County and Crawford County tie at the top with 16.9%. Luce County in the eastern Upper Peninsula (16.8%) and Lake County in the west-central Lower Peninsula (16.7%) are just behind. At the other end, Washtenaw and Ottawa counties are lowest at 8.2%, followed by Houghton at 8.8%.

Michigan’s statewide figure is 11.4%, and 60 of the 83 counties are above it. That sounds odd until you look at population: the largest counties, where most Michiganders live, sit near or below the state number, and they carry the most weight in the statewide figure.

What the county data shows: older counties, more divorced adults (and often more married ones)

Most of the top 25 lie in the northern Lower Peninsula: Alpena, Crawford, Roscommon, Clare, Wexford, Montmorency, Oscoda, Iosco, Kalkaska, Ogemaw, Arenac and others. A few, such as Branch (15.8%) and Calhoun (14.1%), are in south-central Michigan, and Luce, Iron and Chippewa represent the Upper Peninsula.

The common thread is age. Every one of the ten highest counties has a median age above Michigan’s 40.2. Roscommon’s median age is 57.7, Montmorency’s is 56.9 and Oscoda’s is 52.5. A divorced share accumulates over a lifetime, so counties with more people in their 50s, 60s and 70s naturally have more adults whose marriage ended at some point and who did not remarry.

Here is the twist. Many of these same counties also have more married adults than the state. Roscommon is 54.2% married, Montmorency 55.2% and Oscoda 54.4%, all above Michigan’s 47.6%. What they lack is never-married adults: only 19.4% of Montmorency’s adults have never married, compared with 34.2% statewide. So the north is not “less married.” It is older, with fewer young single adults, and both its married and divorced shares run higher as a result. Our marriage by county analysis shows the married side of that picture.

Why the lowest-divorce counties are a mixed group

The bottom ten are not all alike. Washtenaw (8.2%), Houghton (8.8%), Isabella (9.9%) and Kalamazoo (10.3%) are home to large universities and have median ages between 30.1 and 35.0, so many adults have not married yet. Ottawa (8.2%), Kent (10.1%) and Livingston (10.2%) are family-heavy counties with married shares above 50%. Leelanau (10.3%) and Alger (9.4%) are older rural counties that still come in low.

The large metro counties cluster in the middle: Wayne at 11.3%, Macomb 11.1%, Oakland 10.5% and Genesee 13.3%. The Oakland County page has more on the state’s second-largest county.

Michigan counties ranked by share of adults divorced: top 10 and bottom 10

Ties are listed in the order of the underlying data table. The chart shows the top 25 counties, and the full table lists all 83.

Methodology and data sources

County figures are from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey 2024 5-year estimates, covering responses collected from 2020 through 2024, retrieved through the Census Reporter API. The divorced share uses table B12001 (Sex by Marital Status): residents 15 and older who report being divorced, divided by all residents 15 and older. The married share counts those now married except separated. Median age is from table B01002. Unlike our city-level divorce ranking, which covers only places with 10,000 or more residents, county data covers the whole state, including townships and rural areas.

The statement that all ten top counties are older than the state is a direct comparison of each county’s median age with Michigan’s 40.2. The count of 60 counties above 11.4% is a tally of the table.

Limitations

• A share is not a rate. These numbers do not count divorces per year. For the yearly figure, CDC/NCHS reports 2.2 divorces per 1,000 Michigan residents in 2024 (provisional); county-by-county annual rates are not part of this dataset.
• Small counties are noisy. Luce (6,271 residents) and Montmorency (9,516) have much wider margins of error than Wayne or Kent.
• Migration shapes the map. People who move, including retirees, are counted where they live now, not where their marriage ended.
• Remarriage hides history. A person who divorced and remarried is counted as married.

What this means for couples and families across Michigan

A county’s divorced share describes its age profile and history. It says nothing about whether any particular marriage will last, and it is not a sign that people in a given county need help. What it can do is remind us that many adults in every corner of Michigan are living life after divorce: co-parenting across town, dating again in their 50s, or rebuilding friendships after a split.

People in rural northern counties often live far from a therapist’s office. Online therapy closes that distance. Iryna Morhunova-Sutton, LLMFT, meets with clients by video anywhere in Michigan, whether you are in Alpena, Cadillac or Ann Arbor. If you are still deciding about your own marriage, our page on thinking about divorce is a gentle place to start.

How often we update county divorce data

This ranking is refreshed each December with the Census Bureau’s newest ACS 5-year release. The statewide annual rate is updated when CDC/NCHS publishes its next state table.