In 13 Michigan places, most adults have never married, led by East Lansing at 75.2%

Imagine three Friday nights. A 20-year-old in East Lansing heads to a friend’s apartment after a long week of classes. A 34-year-old in Detroit cooks dinner with the partner she has lived with for six years. A 38-year-old in Ferndale meets someone new for a drink on Woodward. In the Census Bureau’s data, all three are counted the same way: never married. That single label covers a lot of different lives.

In 13 Michigan places, most adults have never married

Never married adults in Michigan are a large group: 34.2% of residents age 15 and older have never married. Among the 101 places with at least 10,000 residents, that share runs from 75.2% in East Lansing to 16.7% in Forest Hills. In 13 places, never-married adults make up half or more of the adult population, and 63 of the 101 places are above the statewide figure.

Because the measure starts at age 15, every place includes some teenagers who are simply too young to marry. That is one reason the statewide share looks higher than many people expect.

Three different stories behind Michigan’s high never-married shares

College towns

Seven of the eight highest places are university cities: East Lansing (75.2%), Allendale (68.4%), Mount Pleasant (65.2%), Ypsilanti (64.5%), Kalamazoo (57.5%), Marquette (57.0%) and Ann Arbor (56.0%). Their median ages run from 21.3 to 30.9. These numbers mostly reflect who lives there during the school year. We look at this group in more depth in our report on relationships in Michigan’s college towns.

Older industrial cities

Detroit (57.0%), Inkster (55.2%), Flint (53.5%), Harper Woods (53.2%), Pontiac (53.0%), Eastpointe (51.6%) and Saginaw (49.8%) are a different case. Their median ages are between 35.0 and 37.1, so students do not explain the pattern. Some adults in these cities are raising children or sharing homes with long-term partners without marrying. This data cannot show how many, but it is a reminder that marriage and commitment are not the same thing.

Inner-ring suburbs and growing city centers

A third group is easy to miss. In Oakland County, Ferndale (49.6%), Hazel Park (46.2%) and Royal Oak (43.8%) all have never-married shares well above the state, with median ages around 37. Grand Rapids (46.5%) and Lansing (46.3%) also sit high, with median ages of 32.3 and 33.7. These are places where many adults in their late 20s and 30s live, work and date.

Where never-married adults are least common

At the other end are family-centered suburbs: Forest Hills (16.7%), Jenison (19.7%), East Grand Rapids (20.0%) and Beverly Hills (20.3%). In each, at least 87% of homes are owner-occupied and married shares exceed 64%. Older lakeshore and Downriver communities such as Grand Haven (25.1%) and Trenton (24.7%) are also low, partly because their median ages are 46.8 and 48.2. Our ranking of the most married cities in Michigan is close to a mirror image of this list.

Michigan places with the highest and lowest share of never-married adults

About the data

We used the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) 2024 5-year estimates, which combine survey responses from 2020 through 2024, accessed through the Census Reporter API. Marital status comes from table B12001. The Census Bureau defines “never married” as people who have never been married, including people whose only marriage was annulled. Our share divides never-married residents 15 and older by all residents 15 and older. The 101 places are every Michigan city, village and census-designated place with at least 10,000 residents. Median age is from table B01002, and owner-occupancy from table B25003. Counts of places above 34.2% or at 50% and higher are direct tallies.

What the never-married share leaves out

• Partnership. The ACS marital status question does not ask about cohabiting or dating, so a never-married adult may be single, dating, engaged or in a long-term partnership.
• Timing. The figure is a snapshot. It does not show whether people will marry later, and many in college towns will.
• Precision. Each figure is a survey estimate with a margin of error. Smaller places have wider margins.
• Where students are counted. The ACS uses a “current residence” rule: people staying somewhere for more than two months are counted there. That generally places college students in their college town, which raises never-married shares in university cities.

What this means for singles, couples and families

If you have never married, you are in very large company: about one in three Michigan adults shares that status, and in some cities it is the majority. There is no right timeline. People build full, connected lives on many paths, married or not.

That said, the questions that come with dating and commitment are real. How do you know when to move in together? What if one of you wants marriage and the other does not? Relationship counseling can help unmarried partners talk through those questions, and individual therapy is a place to explore your own patterns in love and friendship. Couples who do decide to marry sometimes start with premarital counseling. Iryna Morhunova-Sutton, LLMFT, offers sessions online for people anywhere in Michigan.

Next update

We refresh these figures every December, when the Census Bureau releases a new ACS 5-year dataset. Corrections are made as soon as an error is confirmed.