West Michigan relationships by the numbers: 19.7% of Michigan’s people, 28.5% of its family therapists

West Michigan has 19.7% of the state’s residents and 28.5% of its marriage and family therapists

The ten counties of West Michigan in this report are home to 1,984,054 people, about one in five Michiganders. Yet the federal NPI Registry lists 208 marriage and family therapists (MFTs) practicing there, 28.5% of the state’s 730. That works out to 1.05 MFTs per 10,000 residents, well above Michigan’s 0.72.

Two counties do most of the lifting. Kalamazoo County has 60 MFTs on record, 2.29 per 10,000, the highest rate of any county in Michigan. Kent County has 98, or 1.48 per 10,000, third in the state. Beyond those two anchors, the picture changes quickly: Ottawa County, with 301,203 residents, has 11 (0.37 per 10,000), and Branch County has one.

The region is also home to the three most married places among Michigan’s 101 cities and towns of 10,000 or more, and to two of the four with the highest divorced shares. This briefing walks through both.

The ten counties in this West Michigan profile

We define West Michigan as Kent, Ottawa, Kalamazoo, Muskegon, Berrien, Calhoun, Allegan, Ionia, St. Joseph and Branch counties, stretching from the Muskegon lakeshore through Grand Rapids and down to the Indiana line. Northern lakeshore counties such as Oceana and Mason are not included. The 23 places of 10,000 or more analyzed below contain 832,628 people, 42.0% of the regional total, so much of West Michigan lives in townships and small towns not shown in the place table.

For comparison, Michigan as a whole: 47.6% of adults married, 11.4% divorced, 27.1% of households with children and a median age of 40.2.

Greater Grand Rapids: Michigan’s most married suburbs

Imagine a cul-de-sac in Forest Hills on a fall evening, bikes in the driveways and porch lights coming on. Three of every four adults there (75.2%) are married, the highest share in Michigan. East Grand Rapids (70.6%) and Jenison (65.6%) are second and third statewide. Norton Shores (57.9%), Northview (56.1%) and Grandville (53.4%) are also well above the state. In all, 8 of the 23 places top Michigan’s 47.6%.

These same suburbs are where children are most common. East Grand Rapids leads the entire state with 50.3% of households including someone under 18, and Forest Hills (41.6%), Jenison (34.5%) and Wyoming (34.4%) follow within the region. At the county level, Allegan and Ottawa (32.0% each) tie for Michigan’s highest share of households with children, and Kent (31.2%) is third. Fifteen of the 23 places are above the state figure.

Grand Rapids itself looks different from its suburbs: 36.7% of adults are married and 26.5% of households have children, both a little below Michigan overall. Its median age, 32.3, is one of the youngest of any large Michigan city.

Lakeshore and southern-tier cities: higher shares of divorced adults

The share of adults who are currently divorced has a wide spread in this region. Coldwater, in Branch County, is at 21.3%, second only to Alpena among all 101 Michigan places. Grand Haven (18.7%) and Niles (18.2%) are third and fourth statewide, and Muskegon and Comstock Park (17.8% each) are close behind. Ten of the 23 places are above Michigan’s 11.4%.

The lowest shares are in Forest Hills (4.5%), Allendale (4.8%) and Jenison (6.4%). Allendale’s low figure has a simple explanation: it is home to Grand Valley State University, and with a median age of 21.5, most of its adults have not married yet (only 24.6% are married). Ottawa County’s 8.2% divorced share ties Washtenaw for the lowest of any Michigan county.

Remember that “currently divorced” is a snapshot of people who have divorced and not remarried. It reflects age, remarriage patterns and who moves where, not just how many marriages end. Our statewide divorce ranking by city explains the measure in more depth.

Where West Michigan’s family therapists practice

By practice city, Grand Rapids has 105 MFT NPI records and Kalamazoo 64, far ahead of Portage (19), Holland (11), and Battle Creek and Muskegon (9 each). Seven places have no records listing them as a practice city: Forest Hills, Allendale, Walker, Cutlerville, Northview, Niles and Comstock Park. Some of those, especially the Census-designated places around Grand Rapids, may simply have practices that use a neighboring city name in their address. See how these counties compare statewide in our therapist density report.

Every West Michigan place of 10,000 or more

Sources and calculations

Demographic data: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024 5-year estimates (responses from 2020 through 2024), via the Census Reporter API, tables B01003, B12001 (marital status for adults 15 and older), B11005 (households with people under 18) and B01002 (median age). Therapist data: CMS NPPES NPI Registry, retrieved 2026-10-08. County counts include individual providers with the Marriage and Family Therapist taxonomy (106H00000X) and a Michigan practice address, assigned to counties by ZIP code centroid. Place counts are a separate city-name query that includes organization records.

Arithmetic used: regional population (1,984,054) and MFTs (208) are sums of the ten counties; 19.7% and 28.5% compare those sums with Michigan’s 10,077,761 residents and 730 MFTs; 1.05 per 10,000 is 208 divided by 1,984,054, times 10,000; 42.0% is the 23 places’ combined population over the regional total.

Caveats

• Registry listings are not licenses. An NPI record does not confirm current licensure or an open caseload, and therapists billing under a group NPI or a different taxonomy are not in the county counts.
• Place and county therapist figures are not additive. Grand Rapids’ 105 place records exceed Kent County’s 98 individuals likely because the place query includes organizations and some suburban addresses that use a Grand Rapids city name.
• Sampling error is larger for places near 10,000 residents, such as Comstock Park and Grand Haven.
• Only MFTs are counted. Counselors, social workers and psychologists also work with couples and families.

Reading the numbers as a West Michigan couple or family

Being in a highly married suburb or a city with more divorced residents says nothing certain about any one household. Plenty of couples in Coldwater are content, and plenty in Forest Hills are working through hard seasons. Data like this is best used for context, not conclusions.

Where it can help is access. A family in Grand Rapids or Kalamazoo has more local MFTs to choose from than a family in Ottawa, Allegan or Branch County. Online sessions narrow that gap. Iryna Morhunova-Sutton, LLMFT, meets with individuals, couples and families only by video, for clients anywhere in Michigan, including along the lakeshore and in the southern tier. If you are curious, read about family therapy, marriage counseling or how online therapy works in Michigan.

Next update

ACS figures will be refreshed with the next 5-year release; NPI counts are updated quarterly. Compare this region with the Metro Detroit briefing, or start from the Michigan hub.