Michigan places where most adults hold a degree average 50.6% married, but college towns break the pattern

Imagine a graduation party in East Grand Rapids. Half the guests are married couples who met in college, now trading notes about kindergarten. Now imagine a crowded house party in Ypsilanti, where nearly everyone in the room is working toward a degree and almost no one is married. Both neighborhoods are full of education. Only one is full of marriages. That contrast is the key to reading the data on marriage and education in Michigan.

More degrees, more married adults, up to a point

We ranked Michigan’s 101 places with at least 10,000 residents by the share of adults 25 and older who hold a bachelor’s degree or higher, then split them into five groups of about 20 places each. Here is the average share of adults married in each:

• Fewest degrees (10.0% to 17.5% with a degree): 34.8% married
• Second (17.8% to 25.5%): 40.2%
• Middle (26.0% to 36.7%): 45.6%
• Fourth (37.1% to 47.9%): 42.1%
• Most degrees (48.0% to 79.9%): 50.6% married

The overall direction is up, and the correlation across all 101 places is r = 0.49. That is a moderate relationship, noticeably weaker than the link between income and marriage in our income analysis (r = 0.78). The dip in the fourth group is the clue to why.

Why the line bends: college towns and educated suburbs are different worlds

The fourth group includes four university communities: Kalamazoo (38.5% with a degree, 27.6% married), Allendale (42.6%, 24.6%), Mount Pleasant (42.9%, 20.1%) and Ypsilanti (46.9%, 23.5%). The top group includes three more: Marquette (48.0%, 30.5%), East Lansing (66.6%, 19.3%) and Ann Arbor (77.9%, 35.2%).

In those places, many degree holders are likely graduate students, early-career staff or recent graduates. They are, on average, young: Ann Arbor’s median age is 27.7. Meanwhile, educated suburbs such as East Grand Rapids (79.9% with a degree, 70.6% married), Beverly Hills (77.9%, 64.0%), Birmingham (76.7%, 57.2%) and Grosse Pointe Park (73.3%, 61.6%) are full of established households in their late 30s and 40s. Same education, very different stage of life.

There are exceptions at the other end, too. Hamtramck has 17.8% of adults with a degree and 53.1% married. Garden City (15.1%, 46.7%) and Sturgis (15.7%, 46.6%) are near the state’s 47.6% married despite low degree shares.

Degree share and married share in selected Michigan places

The first nine rows are the places with the highest degree shares; the last seven are the lowest. The full table of all 101 places is below the chart.

Correlation versus causation: what this does and does not show

A correlation of 0.49 means degree share and married share tend to move together across places, but loosely. It does not show that going to college causes people to marry, or that marriage leads people to finish degrees. Several things could produce the pattern:

• Age structure. Degree holders in established suburbs are older on average than students in college towns, and age strongly shapes marital status.
• Income. College degrees and household income travel together, and income has its own strong link to married share.
• Who moves where. Families with children may choose suburbs with particular school districts, while young singles may choose walkable city neighborhoods.
• Places are not individuals. A community-level pattern cannot tell you how education relates to marriage for any one person.

Methodology

All data are U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 2024 5-year estimates (2020 to 2024), retrieved via the Census Reporter API, for the 101 Michigan places with 10,000 or more residents. Degree share comes from table B15003: people 25 and older whose highest level is a bachelor’s, master’s, professional or doctoral degree, divided by all people 25 and older. Married share is from table B12001: people 15 and older who are now married, excluding separated, divided by everyone 15 and older. Quintiles rank places by degree share (four groups of 20 and a top group of 21) and average the married share within each, unweighted by population. The Pearson correlation is computed across all 101 places.

Limitations

• The two measures use different age groups. Education counts adults 25 and older; marital status counts everyone 15 and older. In college towns, many unmarried students under 25 lower the married share but are not in the education denominator, which exaggerates the college-town gap.
• Survey estimates have margins of error, especially in small places.
• Rural areas and places under 10,000 residents are not included.
• Associate degrees, trade certifications and apprenticeships are not counted as degrees here.

What this means for couples and families

A degree is not a ticket to a lasting relationship, and not having one is not a barrier. These are neighborhood-level averages shaped by age and life stage. Couples in every one of these places face the same core work: listening, repairing after conflict and staying curious about each other.

For couples about to marry, premarital counseling can be a chance to talk through careers, debt from school and where to settle. For couples already together, couples therapy offers a space to work on patterns that keep repeating. Iryna Morhunova-Sutton, LLMFT, meets with couples, individuals and families online anywhere in Michigan. To learn more about student-heavy communities, see our report on relationships in Michigan’s college towns.

Update schedule

We recompute the quintiles and correlation every December, when a new ACS 5-year release is published.