Michigan’s a great place to grow older, say those who are doing it

More than a third of Michigan’s 10 million people are over 50, and a new poll shows that 82% of them see the state as a good to excellent place to live as they grow older. 

Most also gave favorable ratings to the quality of health care available in their region for people their age (84%), as well as the aging services and programs available to older people in their area (77%).

But the poll also finds wide variation in feelings about specific aspects of aging in Michigan, depending on what region of the state older adults live in, their health and disability status, their race, their income, and whether they serve as a family caregiver to another adult. 

From healthcare and housing to transportation and senior services, the new data from the Michigan Poll on Healthy Aging, based at the University of Michigan Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, could help inform Michigan policymakers and organizations as they work to serve the needs of older Michiganders now and in the future. 

Anyone can explore the full poll findings through an interactive dashboard available at https://michmed.org/GYrZd.  It includes a map of the regions used for the analysis.

The only aspect of aging in Michigan that wasn’t viewed favorably by a majority of those polled? The weather. 

Just over half (52%) called it fair or poor, with no major differences by region or other factors. However, it’s important to note that the poll was taken in January of this year, which was colder than normal.

The poll is funded by the Michigan Health Endowment Fund and Michigan Medicine, U-M’s academic medical center.

Poll findings could inform policy

“We hope these findings will be useful across the state, especially our data showing higher need for certain types of services in Northern Michigan, and for those with lower incomes as well as those with disabilities and other significant health concerns,” said poll director Jeffrey Kullgren, M.D., M.P.H., M.S. “We also found many significant differences in the experiences of older Michiganders who are Black, compared with others, which warrants further attention.” Kullgren is an Associate Professor of Internal Medicine at the U-M Medical School who provides primary care to veterans at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System. 

Scott Roberts, Ph.D., the poll’s associate director and a Professor in the U-M School of Public Health, adds that the findings could inform policymakers and those who run programs for older adults. 

“In this and related polls, we’ve found that a lot of older adults aren’t aware of Area Agencies on Aging, or of senior-specific services in their community,” he said. “Increasing access and awareness, and working to reduce any stigma that older adults may have about reaching out and seeking help, is an immediate opportunity.”

“This poll gives us a deeper and richer understanding of how older adults experience aging in our state, along with great information about the areas where we need to be doing more and doing better to support people as they age,” said Phil Lewis, Director for Healthy Aging at the Michigan Health Endowment Fund. “It’s clear Michigan has a lot of assets that make life better for older adults, including strong networks of health care and aging service providers — we need to build on these strengths to provide equitable opportunities for all in our state to age well.”

Key findings about growing older in Michigan

The poll team asked Michiganders over 50 about a wide range of topics. Some of the main takeaways include: 

• Overall rating: People 65 and older were more likely than those age 50 to 64 to rate Michigan as an excellent, very good or good place to age, at 87% vs. 77%. 
  • Black Michiganders age 50 and older were less likely than white Michiganders 50 and older to rate the state as an excellent, very good or good place to age, at 69% vs. 84%. 
  • There were similar gaps in overall rating of Michigan as a place to age between those who say their mental health or physical health is fair or poor and those who say it’s good to excellent, and between those who say they have a disability that limits their daily activities and those who do not.
     
• Healthcare: People 50 and older living in Northern Michigan (the Northern Lower Peninsula and Upper Peninsula) were much less likely to say it’s very easy or somewhat easy to find high-quality health care than those living in other parts of the state. Of Northern Michigan residents, 58% said so, compared with 86% of those in Southeast Michigan and 75% in other parts of the state.
   
• Aging-related services: Older adults who say their physical or mental health is fair or poor were much less likely to rate the aging services and programs in their area favorably than those who rated their own health more highly. So were older adults with household incomes below $60,000, Black adults over 50 and those with disabilities. 
  • Awareness of services: 39% of people 50 and over said they aren’t familiar with services for older adults in their area. Caregivers (those who provide unpaid care regularly for another adult) were more likely to be familiar with such services, but even so, 25% of them were not familiar with what’s available in their area.
• Cost of living: While just over half (55%) of Michiganders 50 and older rated the cost of living in their area as excellent, very good or good, the percentage was much lower among those who rated their physical or mental health as fair or poor, those who have an activity-limiting disability, and those who are Black.
   
• Housing: 29% of Michiganders age 50 and older said it’s very difficult or somewhat difficult to find housing that meets their needs, but the percentage was higher (39%) in the Northern and Southwest regions, compared with the Central (29%) and Southeast (24%). People in their 50s and early 60s, those with incomes under $60,000, and those with health challenges and disabilities were also more likely to say that finding housing was very difficult or somewhat difficult.
   
• Transportation: Overall, 26% of Michiganders age 50 and up said it’s somewhat or very difficult to find safe and reliable transportation in their part of their state, regardless of their household income. 
  • Concerns about finding safe and reliable transportation were more common among some groups of older Michiganders, with 31% of caregivers and 32% of people with disabilities, as well as 33% of those living in Northern Michigan, saying they have difficulty finding it. That’s compared with percentages in the low to mid-20s for those who aren’t caregivers, don’t have disabilities, or live in other areas of the state.
     
• Public safety: While the vast majority (82%) of Michiganders over 50 rated public safety in their area as excellent, very good or good, 37% of Black Michiganders over 50 said public safety in their area is fair or poor, compared with 15% of their white counterparts. Those with disabilities also were more likely to rate their local public safety as fair or poor.
   
• Social and recreational activity: Overall, 84% of Michiganders age 50 and older feel that social and recreational opportunities for people their age are excellent, very good, or good, but those with incomes below $60,000, disabilities, lower physical or mental health ratings, and those living in Northern Michigan were less likely to say so. 

  • 18% of Michiganders over 65 said they had attended or participated in an event or activity organized by a senior center in the past year. 

     

    About the poll

    The Michigan Poll on Healthy Aging findings come from a survey conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago for IHPI. The survey was administered online and by phone in January 2026 to 1,293 Michigan adults age 50 to 93 from the AmeriSpeak panel, including a non-probability oversample. Results are weighted to reflect the 50+ population in Michigan. 

    Read past Michigan Poll on Healthy Aging reports and national findings, explore previous interactive data dashboards, and learn about the poll methodology.  
    The poll is affiliated with the National Poll on Healthy Aging, also based at IHPI and supported by Michigan Medicine.