Grand Traverse County area

Population and density of Grand Traverse County

The Census Bureau estimates that 96,729 people lived in Grand Traverse County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #650 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #22 of 83 in Michigan. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 95,248, the population has grown by 1,481 (+1.6%), compared with +0.5% for Michigan as a whole.

With 464.3 square miles of land, that is 208 people per square mile (80 per km²), placing Grand Traverse County #627 nationally for density and #18 in Michigan. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Michigan median is 62. Put another way, there are about 3.1 acres of land per resident.

U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 population estimates. Estimates are revised each year and are not decennial census counts. Density divides the whole population by the whole county’s land area, so it describes an average, not how settlement is distributed within the county. Population sources and methods.

Cities and towns in Grand Traverse County

Grand Traverse County is divided into 14 municipalities and townships. In Michigan, county subdivisions are local governments, and together they cover all of the county’s land and residents; a few are unorganized areas without their own government.

The most populous is Garfield charter township, with 19,698 residents (20.4% of the county). The largest by land is Paradise township, at 52.9 mi², or 11.4% of the county’s land. The county seat, Traverse City city, has 15,477 residents. Among those with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Paradise township grew fastest since then (+2.9%).

Population: U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 subcounty estimates, counting only the part of each subdivision inside Grand Traverse County. Land: 2026 Census Gazetteer. How communities are listed.

Metropolitan area

Grand Traverse County is a central county of the Traverse City, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 4 county equivalents have 156,972 residents on 1,691 square miles of land; Grand Traverse County accounts for 27.5% of the land and 61.6% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #191 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #284 by population.

ZIP codes

11 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Grand Traverse County; 7 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

4962049633496374964349649496834968449685496864969049696

ZIP Code Tabulation Areas are the Census Bureau’s approximations of USPS ZIP Code service areas, from the 2020 Census relationship files. Lighter codes have less than half of their land in this county. Post-office-box and single-address ZIP Codes have no tabulation area.

Counties bordering Grand Traverse County

Grand Traverse County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents. It has more land than 2 of them. The largest neighbor is Wexford County (564.9 mi²) and the smallest is Benzie County (319.7 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Grand Traverse County forms a block of 2,731.6 mi² of land, of which it holds 17%.

How big is Grand Traverse County compared with U.S. states?

Grand Traverse County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2.2 times as much. Michigan’s county land could hold about 122 areas the size of Grand Traverse County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 21.5 miles (34.7 km) on each side. Real county shapes are rarely square, so this is a scale reference rather than a width or driving distance.

State figures are the sums of each state’s county-equivalent land measurements in the same Census release, so states and counties are compared on the same basis. Published state totals can differ slightly because of rounding. Compare all states · Counties bigger than entire states.

What stands out about Grand Traverse County?

Grand Traverse County has more land than 1,009 of the other 3,221 county equivalents in the dataset.

A median is the middle county-equivalent measurement, not the average of the largest and smallest. All three bars use the same linear scale. Very small areas may appear as a thin sliver; the labels retain their values.

Does including water change its rank?

Using land plus water places Grand Traverse County at #1,740 nationally by total area, 473 places closer to the top than its land rank. The water assigned to this geography moves it ahead of some county equivalents with more land.

Its water share is 22.8%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 21.6 percentage points higher. This describes the statistical geography’s land/water mix, not flood exposure or developable land.

Closest positions in the national land ranking

These entries sit immediately beside Grand Traverse County in the national ranking. They can be in different states and are not necessarily geographic neighbors.

Calculated from the same Census release as the area table. Total-area order uses original ALAND + AWATER; water shares and chart labels use published square miles. Calculation details.