New County Population Estimates

Submitted by whitemice on Mon, 03/17/2025 - 06:45

County level population estimates for 2024 are now available. All three counties which contain any part of the Grand Rapids UrbaniZed Area [the UZA] grew. Municipal population estimates have not been released. Will they be? Who knows.

Aside: Ok, Ionia county does not really belong in the UZA, but it is a hop-skip-and-a-jump from Lowell which is still linked to Grand Rapids by rail. Much of the right-of-way from Lowell to Ionia is still lying there, whatever the railroad equivalent of "fallow" is. It, like the West Michigan Express [Grand Rapids to Holland], is such an obvious connection my heart just can't let it go. Ionia even still has a downtown - right there! Lowell has a downtown as well. I know, "America" 😢, but the heart wants to make places - and people's lives - not suck. What a crazy idea.
County 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Michigan 10,072,703 10,041,351 10,050,877 10,083,356 10,140,459
Ionia County 66,891 66,853 66,774 66,104 66,250
Kent County 658,524 658,979 660,134 665,109 673,002
Ottawa County 296,899 298,394 300,910 303,575 306,235

These three counties now account for 10.31% of the population of the state of Michigan, while totaling only 3.4% of the land area.

County 2021 2022 2023 2024
Ionia County -0.06% -0.12% -1.00% +0.22%
Kent County +0.07% +0.18% +0.75% +1.19%
Ottawa County +0.50% +0.84% +0.89% +0.88%

The population of Ionia county, as an incarceration center, can fluctuate by different factors than the other counties: the American census counts prisoners. As facilities are open or closed that influences the population counts; a significant incarceration facility was closed in 2023.

One cannot help but imagine the population growth potential of Kent county if its cities had even competent housing policies? 😞