In East Lansing, 75.2% of adults have never married, more than twice the Michigan share of 34.2%

Picture a September Saturday in East Lansing: move-in carts, a first date over coffee on Grand River, a couple deciding whether they will try long distance after graduation. University towns run on a different relationship calendar from most of Michigan, and the Census numbers show it plainly.

East Lansing leads Michigan’s college towns with 75.2% of adults never married

In East Lansing, home to Michigan State University, 75.2% of residents 15 and older have never married, more than twice the statewide share of 34.2%. Allendale (Grand Valley State University) follows at 68.4%, then Mount Pleasant (Central Michigan University) at 65.2% and Ypsilanti (Eastern Michigan University) at 64.5%. Even the lowest of the seven, Ann Arbor at 56.0%, is far above the state.

What the data shows: age drives the gap

The simplest explanation is age. Median age is 21.3 in East Lansing and 21.5 in Allendale, against 40.2 for Michigan. Every town on the list has a median age of 30.9 or younger. Most people in their late teens and early twenties have not married yet anywhere in the country, so a town where they are the majority will show a high never-married share. For a statewide view, see our report on never-married adults in Michigan and the median age ranking.

The married share is correspondingly low: 19.3% of adults in East Lansing, 20.1% in Mount Pleasant and 23.5% in Ypsilanti, compared with 47.6% statewide. Ann Arbor (35.2%) and Marquette (30.5%), with larger non-student populations, sit higher. Divorce is rare where few people have married: 2.9% of adults in East Lansing are divorced, against 11.4% for Michigan.

Housing tells the same story. Renters occupy most homes in six of the seven towns, from 53.7% in Marquette to 66.8% in Ypsilanti; statewide only 26.8% of households rent. Allendale, where 47.2% rent, is the exception, and it also has the highest share of households with children of the seven (25.4%), close to Michigan’s 27.1%.

The towns are not interchangeable. Kalamazoo (Western Michigan University and Kalamazoo College) is a mid-sized city where 57.5% of adults have never married but 22.9% of households include children. Marquette is the oldest of the group at 30.9 and the only one in the Upper Peninsula.

Neighbors can differ, too. Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti sit a few miles apart in Washtenaw County and share the same median age, 27.7. Yet 64.5% of Ypsilanti adults have never married against 56.0% in Ann Arbor, 23.5% are married against 35.2%, and 66.8% of Ypsilanti households rent against 54.5%. Age alone does not explain every gap; the mix of graduate students, faculty, young professionals and long-time families in each town shapes the numbers as well, though this data cannot separate those groups.

Seven Michigan college towns compared

Methodology

All figures are American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates for Census places, retrieved via the Census Reporter API. Never married is the share of the population 15 and older in that marital status (table B12001); median age is from B01002; renter share is 100 minus the owner-occupied share of occupied housing units (B25003), our own subtraction, so it describes households, not individual people. Allendale is a Census-designated place rather than an incorporated city. The college pairing reflects the main university in or next to each place.

Students matter to these numbers because of how the ACS decides where people live. The Census Bureau counts anyone living or staying at an address for more than two months as a resident there, so students living in town during the school year are generally counted in the college town, not at a parent’s home.

Limitations

• “Never married” includes 15- to 17-year-olds and every undergraduate, so it is a snapshot of life stage, not a measure of commitment.
• Many students in dormitories live in group quarters, which are not households, so renter shares exclude them.
• Five-year estimates blend 2020 through 2024, a period that included pandemic disruptions to campus life.
• Place boundaries rarely match campus boundaries, and some universities sit partly outside the place they are paired with.

What this means for couples and families in college towns

A high never-married share does not mean people in these towns are less committed, and it does not suggest anyone needs counseling. It reflects a life stage full of beginnings: first serious relationships, moves in together, long-distance plans, graduate school decisions and, for some, engagement. Those transitions can be exciting and stressful at once.

When couples want support, relationship counseling can help with communication and big decisions, and premarital counseling suits partners thinking about marriage. Students who are new to Michigan can generally see a Michigan-licensed therapist online while they are physically in the state. Over breaks spent out of state, sessions with a Michigan-only license usually have to pause, because licensure follows where the client is located. Iryna Morhunova-Sutton, LLMFT, works with individuals and couples online anywhere in Michigan, from Ann Arbor to Marquette; see how online therapy in Michigan works.

Update schedule

We refresh this comparison each time the Census Bureau releases new ACS 5-year estimates, usually in December.