West Michigan

	West Michigan
	Lower Peninsula of Michigan
Country	United States
State	Michigan
	The West Michigan area of Michigan. (Highlighted in blue)

This article is about the geographic region of Western Michigan. For the university, see Western Michigan University. For the university's athletic program, see Western Michigan Broncos.

Map of the region, employing a narrow definition.

West Michigan and Western Michigan are terms for an arbitrarily selected region in the U.S. state of Michigan in its Lower Peninsula. There is no official definition for what constitutes "West Michigan." The area of West Michigan may also include parts Southern Michigan.

[edit] Definition

In general, "West Michigan" often refers to the area bounded by the cities of Muskegon (in the north), Grand Rapids (in the northeast), Kalamazoo-Battle Creek (in the southeast) and St.Joseph-Benton Harbor (in the southwest). However, definitions of the boundaries of the region vary widely; in some contexts, the term "West Michigan" is applied only to the counties of Allegan, Kent, Muskegon, and Ottawa, which together compose the Grand Rapids-Muskegon-Holland SMSA. Other definitions include the Kalamazoo-Battle Creek and Benton Harbor-St. Joseph regions, which can be considered distinct regions or parts of other regions such as Michiana, Southern Michigan, or Southwest Michigan,^[1]^[2]^[3] in the case of Benton Harbor-St. Joseph.

The northern boundary of the region is also poorly defined; the population density, land use, economic and cultural character, and physical geography most often associated with West Michigan fades in northern Muskegon and Kent Counties, however areas as far north as Ludington and White Cloud may be included because of their close economic ties to the cities to the south. Other areas, such as Montcalm County in the northeast corner of the region, are transitional areas that straddle Michigan regions but are included for classification purposes. In the case of Montcalm County, the area around Greenville in the county's southwest corner is closely tied economically with Grand Rapids, while the area around Vestaburg and Edmore in the northeastern corner of county are more closely associated with the cities of Mount Pleasant and Alma, which are included in almost any definition of Central Michigan.

[edit] Geography

See also List of Michigan state parks and geography of Michigan.
The area is considered to be part of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Grand Rapids.^[4]
In northwest Kent County is Fruit Ridge, which is a prime fruit-growing region; that accounts for 65% of all Michigan apple production.

[edit] Municipalities

The following table contains the largest municipalities of West Michigan according to the 2010 Census. This list holds for nearly every geographic definition of West Michigan. If Battle Creek were included, it would be ranked fourth.

Rank	Municipality	County	Population
1	Grand Rapids	Kent	188,040
2	Kalamazoo	Kalamazoo	74,262
3	Wyoming	Kent	72,125
4	Kentwood	Kent	48,707
5	Georgetown Charter Township	Ottawa	46,985
6	Portage	Kalamazoo	46,292
7	Muskegon	Muskegon	38,401
8	Holland Charter Township	Ottawa	35,636
9	Holland	Ottawa/Allegan	33,051
10	Plainfield Charter Township	Kent	30,952
11	Gaines Charter Township	Kent	25,146
12	Norton Shores	Muskegon	23,994
13	Walker	Kent	23,537
14	Kalamazoo Charter Township	Kalamazoo	21,918
15	Oshtemo Charter Township	Kalamazoo	21,705
16	Allendale Charter Township	Ottawa	20,708
17	Byron Township	Kent	20,317
18	Muskegon Charter Township	Muskegon	17,840
19	Park Township	Ottawa	17,802
20	Cascade Charter Township	Kent	17,134
21	Grand Rapids Charter Township	Kent	16,661
22	Grandville	Kent	15,378
23	Grand Haven Charter Township	Ottawa	15,178

Five of the above cities, Wyoming, Kentwood, Portage, Norton Shores, and Walker, are former suburban townships that incorporated in the 1960s in order to prevent annexation by an adjacent city. The presence of these cities in the top ten reflects both the large geographic area of these cities, as well as the long and continuing growth of suburban areas in West Michigan.