Mid-Michigan relationships by the numbers: 14 counties, 2.44 million people and 177 family therapists
Lansing, Flint, the Tri-Cities and Ann Arbor in one data briefing: marriage, divorce, families with children and where family therapists practice.
Key takeaways
- Mid-Michigan has 24.3% of Michigan's residents and 24.2% of its MFTs on record, 0.72 per 10,000, matching the state rate.
- Ingham County's 1.62 MFTs per 10,000 is second in Michigan; Bay County is the most populous of 29 counties with none.
- Only Midland (52.1%), Okemos (51.0%) and Holt (49.3%) of 21 places are above Michigan's 47.6% married share.
- 16 of 21 places are above the state's 11.4% divorced share, led by Jackson and Burton at 17.0%.
- East Lansing has the lowest married share (19.3%) and lowest divorced share (2.9%) of all 101 Michigan places analyzed.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey ACS 2024 5-year (2020-2024), via Census Reporter API
View the data
| Place | % married |
|---|---|
| Midland | 52.1% |
| Okemos | 51% |
| Holt | 49.3% |
| Haslett | 46.4% |
| Fenton | 46.2% |
| Waverly | 45.9% |
| Monroe | 42.8% |
| Howell | 42.3% |
| Burton | 39.3% |
| Bay City | 38.9% |
| Owosso | 38.2% |
| Port Huron | 36% |
| Ann Arbor | 35.2% |
| Lansing | 34.7% |
| Adrian | 31.3% |
| Jackson | 29.7% |
| Saginaw | 26.8% |
| Ypsilanti | 23.5% |
| Flint | 22.2% |
| Mount Pleasant | 20.1% |
| East Lansing | 19.3% |
Mid-Michigan matches the state on therapist supply, but Bay County has no MFTs on record
The 14 counties in this Mid-Michigan profile hold 2,444,190 residents, 24.3% of Michigan’s population, and 177 marriage and family therapists (MFTs) in the federal NPI Registry, 24.2% of the state’s 730. The resulting rate, 0.72 MFTs per 10,000 residents, is identical to Michigan’s.
The average is evenly matched; the map is not. Ingham County, home to Lansing and East Lansing, has 46 MFTs on record and 1.62 per 10,000, the second-highest county rate in Michigan. Isabella County (1.39) ranks fourth and Livingston (1.12) eighth. Meanwhile Bay County, with 103,008 residents, has none, making it the most populous of Michigan’s 29 counties with no MFT on record. Saginaw County has 4 for 188,665 people (0.21 per 10,000), and Lenawee has 1.
Fourteen counties, from Saginaw Bay to the Ohio line
This report groups Bay, Eaton, Genesee, Ingham, Isabella, Jackson, Lenawee, Livingston, Midland, Monroe, Saginaw, Shiawassee, St. Clair and Washtenaw counties as Mid-Michigan. It is a broad, editorial definition: it runs from the Tri-Cities (Saginaw, Bay City and Midland) and Mount Pleasant through Flint and Lansing to Ann Arbor, and east and south to Port Huron, Monroe and Adrian. Some readers would place Washtenaw, Livingston, Monroe and St. Clair in Southeast Michigan; we keep them here so they are not lost between regions, and the three core Detroit counties appear in our Metro Detroit briefing.
Only 32.0% of the region’s residents live in the 21 places of 10,000 or more listed below. That is a much smaller share than in Metro Detroit (65.9%) or West Michigan (42.0%), computed the same way in those briefings: most of this region lives in townships and small towns.
| County | Population | Adults married | Adults divorced | Households with children | Median age | MFTs on record | MFTs per 10,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Genesee | 403,305 | 43.3% | 13.3% | 28.0% | 40.6 | 24 | 0.6 |
| Washtenaw | 369,822 | 44.3% | 8.2% | 24.0% | 35.0 | 36 | 0.97 |
| Ingham | 283,913 | 39.8% | 10.4% | 23.7% | 33.3 | 46 | 1.62 |
| Livingston | 195,833 | 58.8% | 10.2% | 28.5% | 43.9 | 22 | 1.12 |
| Saginaw | 188,665 | 44.2% | 11.9% | 26.4% | 41.2 | 4 | 0.21 |
| St. Clair | 160,221 | 52.2% | 12.3% | 26.2% | 44.5 | 8 | 0.5 |
| Jackson | 160,060 | 45.7% | 13.1% | 25.0% | 41.5 | 9 | 0.56 |
| Monroe | 155,505 | 51.4% | 12.7% | 28.1% | 42.8 | 5 | 0.32 |
| Eaton | 109,130 | 51.8% | 12.4% | 25.9% | 41.4 | 7 | 0.64 |
| Bay | 103,008 | 47.7% | 12.3% | 24.9% | 43.9 | 0 | 0.0 |
| Lenawee | 98,415 | 50.7% | 12.2% | 27.6% | 42.4 | 1 | 0.1 |
| Midland | 83,757 | 55.4% | 11.3% | 27.9% | 41.8 | 3 | 0.36 |
| Shiawassee | 67,991 | 51.3% | 13.4% | 27.0% | 43.2 | 3 | 0.44 |
| Isabella | 64,565 | 36.9% | 9.9% | 23.3% | 30.1 | 9 | 1.39 |
Statewide reference: 47.6% married, 11.4% divorced, 27.1% of households with children, median age 40.2.
College towns pull marriage down: only 3 of 21 places are above the state
Picture a Tuesday on Grand River Avenue in East Lansing: backpacks, bike racks and a median age of 21.3. Just 19.3% of adults there are married, the lowest of all 101 Michigan places in our data. Mount Pleasant (20.1%), Ypsilanti (23.5%) and Ann Arbor (35.2%) are also college towns with low married shares. Flint (22.2%) and Saginaw (26.8%) are low for different reasons, and the data here cannot say what those are.
Only Midland (52.1%), Okemos (51.0%) and Holt (49.3%) are above Michigan’s 47.6%. The counties tell a more married story than the cities: Livingston (58.8%, seventh among 83 counties), Midland (55.4%) and St. Clair (52.2%) all exceed the state, while Ingham (39.8%) and Isabella (36.9%) are among the three least married counties in Michigan.
Divorced adults: 16 of 21 places above the state share
If marriage is lower in Mid-Michigan’s cities, the share of adults who are currently divorced is higher. Sixteen of the 21 places exceed the state’s 11.4%. Jackson and Burton (17.0% each), Howell (16.9%), Monroe (16.2%), Port Huron (16.0%), Owosso (15.7%), Bay City (15.3%) and Flint (15.1%) lead.
The low end is all university-area communities: East Lansing (2.9%, lowest in our 101-place data), Ann Arbor (5.8%) and Okemos (6.5%). In student-heavy towns, few adults have married, so few can be divorced. Washtenaw County’s 8.2% ties Ottawa for the lowest county share in Michigan. The measure is a stock (people divorced and not remarried), not an annual rate; see divorce by Michigan county for the full county ranking.
Households with children: below average in most places
Only 6 of the 21 places top Michigan’s 27.1% share of households with children: Okemos (33.6%), Monroe (30.1%), Saginaw (29.4%), Holt (27.7%), Owosso (27.6%) and Flint (27.4%). East Lansing (15.0%), Mount Pleasant (16.1%) and Ann Arbor (17.1%) are lowest. Genesee (28.0%), Livingston (28.5%) and Monroe (28.1%) counties sit slightly above the state.
Where Mid-Michigan’s MFTs practice
By practice city, Ann Arbor has 41 MFT NPI records, Lansing 31, East Lansing 30, Okemos 26 and Flint 21. Together the Lansing-area trio of Lansing, East Lansing and Okemos lists 87 records. Burton (29,500 residents) and Waverly (23,575) have none. The Saginaw Bay area is the thinnest part of the region: Saginaw lists 6 records, Bay City 2 and Midland 4. Our report on Michigan counties without an MFT covers Bay County and the 28 others.
All 21 Mid-Michigan places of 10,000 or more
| Place (by population) | Population | Adults married | Adults divorced | Households with children | MFT NPI records (practice city) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ann Arbor | 122,036 | 35.2% | 5.8% | 17.1% | 41 |
| Lansing | 113,023 | 34.7% | 13.3% | 22.8% | 31 |
| Flint | 80,175 | 22.2% | 15.1% | 27.4% | 21 |
| East Lansing | 45,758 | 19.3% | 2.9% | 15.0% | 30 |
| Saginaw | 43,536 | 26.8% | 14.8% | 29.4% | 6 |
| Midland | 42,724 | 52.1% | 11.6% | 26.8% | 4 |
| Bay City | 32,320 | 38.9% | 15.3% | 24.7% | 2 |
| Jackson | 31,058 | 29.7% | 17.0% | 24.3% | 9 |
| Burton | 29,500 | 39.3% | 17.0% | 25.3% | 0 |
| Port Huron | 28,620 | 36.0% | 16.0% | 26.6% | 5 |
| Okemos | 26,396 | 51.0% | 6.5% | 33.6% | 26 |
| Holt | 25,316 | 49.3% | 12.1% | 27.7% | 2 |
| Waverly | 23,575 | 45.9% | 12.2% | 21.3% | 0 |
| Mount Pleasant | 21,236 | 20.1% | 10.0% | 16.1% | 7 |
| Adrian | 20,395 | 31.3% | 14.7% | 26.9% | 1 |
| Monroe | 20,320 | 42.8% | 16.2% | 30.1% | 4 |
| Ypsilanti | 19,857 | 23.5% | 8.6% | 18.3% | 5 |
| Haslett | 18,559 | 46.4% | 13.8% | 18.4% | 1 |
| Owosso | 14,632 | 38.2% | 15.7% | 27.6% | 3 |
| Fenton | 11,906 | 46.2% | 12.5% | 26.5% | 6 |
| Howell | 10,021 | 42.3% | 16.9% | 20.2% | 7 |
How we built this briefing
Census figures: ACS 2024 5-year estimates covering 2020 through 2024, retrieved through the Census Reporter API (tables B01003, B12001, B11005, B01002 and B08301). MFT figures: CMS NPPES NPI Registry, retrieved 2026-10-08. The county numbers count individual NPI records carrying the Marriage and Family Therapist taxonomy (106H00000X) with a Michigan practice location, placed in a county by the centroid of the practice ZIP code. The place column is a separate city-name search that also returns organization records.
Calculations: 2,444,190 residents and 177 MFTs are sums across the 14 counties; 24.3% and 24.2% divide them by Michigan’s totals (10,077,761 and 730); 0.72 per 10,000 is 177 divided by 2,444,190, times 10,000; 87 is the sum of three place counts; 32.0% is the 21 places’ combined population divided by the regional total.
Known gaps in the data
- NPI listings show registration, not practice. A record does not prove an active Michigan license, and MFTs billing only under an organization NPI or another taxonomy are not in county totals.
- Place counts and county counts measure different things and should not be added or compared one to one.
- Students affect nearly every measure in East Lansing, Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti and Mount Pleasant.
- ACS estimates have margins of error, larger for places close to 10,000 residents such as Howell and Fenton.
- Other licensed professionals who work with couples and families, such as counselors and social workers, are not counted.
Context for Mid-Michigan couples and families
These numbers describe communities, not individual relationships. A Jackson couple is not more likely to be unhappy because their city’s divorced share is high, and a Midland couple is not guaranteed smooth sailing. What the data does flag is distance: someone in Bay or Lenawee County may have few or no MFTs nearby, while Lansing and Ann Arbor have many.
Video sessions can close that gap. Iryna Morhunova-Sutton, LLMFT, works with individuals, couples and families exclusively online, for clients located anywhere in Michigan, so a winter session does not require a drive on US-127 or I-75. Read more about couples therapy or online therapy in Michigan.
Refresh schedule
We update Census data with each ACS 5-year release and NPI counts quarterly. See the other regions from the Michigan hub.
Common questions
What counties are in Mid-Michigan?
This report uses 14 counties: Bay, Eaton, Genesee, Ingham, Isabella, Jackson, Lenawee, Livingston, Midland, Monroe, Saginaw, Shiawassee, St. Clair and Washtenaw, with 2,444,190 residents combined. Definitions vary; some people place Washtenaw, Livingston, Monroe and St. Clair in Southeast Michigan instead.
How many marriage and family therapists are in Mid-Michigan?
The NPI Registry lists 177 individual marriage and family therapists in these 14 counties as of October 2026, or 0.72 per 10,000 residents. Ingham (46), Washtenaw (36), Genesee (24) and Livingston (22) have the most. Listings do not confirm active licensure.
Which Mid-Michigan city has the highest divorced share?
Jackson and Burton tie at 17.0% of adults currently divorced, followed by Howell (16.9%), Monroe (16.2%) and Port Huron (16.0%). Michigan's figure is 11.4%. This is a snapshot of people divorced and not remarried, not an annual divorce rate. East Lansing is lowest at 2.9%.
Does Bay County have marriage and family therapists?
No individual MFT NPI records were found with a Bay County practice location as of October 2026, although 2 records (which can include organizations) list Bay City as a practice city. With 103,008 residents, Bay is the most populous Michigan county with no MFT on record. Online therapy with a Michigan-licensed therapist is one option.
Sources
- U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2024 5-year estimates (2020-2024), via Census Reporter
- Census Reporter: Table B12001, Sex by Marital Status (population 15 and over)
- Census Reporter: Table B11005, Households by Presence of People Under 18 Years by Household Type
- Census Reporter: Table B01002, Median Age by Sex
- CMS NPPES NPI Registry (taxonomy 106H00000X, Marriage & Family Therapist), retrieved 2026-10-08
- U.S. Census Bureau: Using 1-year or 5-year American Community Survey data