Upper Peninsula Towns that have a college/university in them typically have a higher median household income, high % of the population that is 18-34, and have more male-identifying residents than females. For all of Michigan in 2018, the median household income was $54,938. This is because of the Lower peninsula pulling the median upwards. If we were to simply look at the Upper Peninsula the Median would surely change. As you can see from the map below, the darker the orange the higher the median household income in 2018. We can see that counties that have colleges/universities like Michigan Tech, Northern Michigan University, and Lake Superior State, have a slightly higher median Household income. This could be due to professors skewing the data or perhaps Alumni that graduated and decided to stay.
Going off of that it is interesting to see the total populations % of people age 18-34 in these counties as well. As expected if your county has one of these institutions one would assume that the population of younger people would jump simply because of the large attraction drawing them in. From there it could spiral, for example, say a student moved to attend a university there and they were married. Now the spouse is also going to be moving to that county. We do see some heightened populations of younger generations in counties nearing colleges and universities, this could be explained by simply the housing market being cheaper there, so as a college student they commute a few minutes to campus as opposed to facing higher living expenses.
Lastly, it was interesting that Michigan as a whole only has a male population of about 49.2%. However when we look at the last map that almost every county in the upper peninsula has more than 50% male population. In just Houghton County we see a male population of 54.09%. This jump could be from Michigan Tech. Looking with a sociological perspective one would wonder what could be driving this jump in the male population that the majority of the Upper Peninsula experience a rise in the Male population in 2018. The matter of comparing male to female populations is a bit idiotic especially in 2018, and today because this idea that gender is binary is just not the case. Researching sociological ideas requires looking at populations with less constricting thoughts. For this research to have been beneficial they should have included LGBTQIA+ populations. Including everyone would help the results be more holistic and true.
Socially it is important to note these changes we see because of the drastic impact it has on survey results and populations. The Upper Peninsula is an interesting place with not much to do indoors. Without performing a survey to see what makes people reside in the Upper Peninsula we can not be sure what drives them to stay. We do know from the maps that living in a county with a university increases your median household income. Perhaps this is because professors/university employees get paid more and skew the data, or perhaps it is because there are better jobs all around to support the university and the students it brings. For example, more students would mean needing more doctors and nurses to care for those students. Perhaps the rise in household income is because a lot of students choose to rent their housing and so citizens can supplement their income with a rental unit. There is no sure way to know without conducting more research and polling the citizens of those counties. As a fellow Yooper sometimes the Upper Peninsula is just what we are comfortable with so, no matter the economic difference we will stay in the county we are from because it is what we know and where our family may be.
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