Ann Arbor is a city in
Washtenaw County, Michigan
Washtenaw County ( ) is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the United States 2020 Census, 2020 census, the population was 372,258. The county seat and largest city is Ann Arbor, Michigan, Ann Arbor. The ...
, United States, and its
county seat
A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...
.
The
2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851, making it the
fifth-most populous city in Michigan.
Located on the
Huron River
The Huron River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed November 7, 2011 river in southeast Michigan, southeastern Michigan, rising out of the Huron Swamp in Springfie ...
, Ann Arbor is the principal city of its
metropolitan area
A metropolitan area or metro is a region consisting of a densely populated urban area, urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories which share Industry (economics), industries, commercial areas, Transport infrastructure, transport network ...
, which encompasses all of Washtenaw County and had 372,258 residents in 2020. Ann Arbor is included in the
Detroit–Warren–Ann Arbor combined statistical area and the
Great Lakes megalopolis.
Ann Arbor was founded in 1824 by
John Allen and
Elisha Rumsey. It was named after the wives of the village's founders, both named Ann, and the stands of
bur oak
''Quercus macrocarpa'', the bur oak or burr oak, is a species of oak tree native to eastern North America. It is in the white oak section, ''Quercus'' sect. ''Quercus'', and is also called mossycup oak, mossycup white oak, blue oak, or scrub ...
trees they found at the site of the town. The
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
was established in Ann Arbor in 1837, and the city's population grew at a rapid rate in the early to mid-20th century.
A
college town
A college town or university town is a town or city whose character is dominated by a college or university and their associated culture, often characterised by the student population making up 20 percent of the population of the community, bu ...
, Ann Arbor is home to the University of Michigan, which significantly shapes the city's economy, employing about 30,000 workers which includes about 12,000 in its
medical center. The city's economy is also centered on high technology, with several companies drawn to the area by the university's research and development infrastructure. The city has been a center for progressive politics as well as several social and religious movements.
History
Before founding as Ann Arbor
The region was once inhabited by several
Native American tribes, the most prominent being the
Anishinaabe
The Anishinaabe (alternatively spelled Anishinabe, Anicinape, Nishnaabe, Neshnabé, Anishinaabeg, Anishinabek, Aanishnaabe) are a group of culturally related Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples in the Great Lakes region of C ...
people of the Three Fires: the
Odawa
The Odawa (also Ottawa or Odaawaa ) are an Indigenous North American people who primarily inhabit land in the Eastern Woodlands region, now in jurisdictions of the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada. Their territory long prec ...
,
Ojibwe
The Ojibwe (; Ojibwe writing systems#Ojibwe syllabics, syll.: ᐅᒋᐺ; plural: ''Ojibweg'' ᐅᒋᐺᒃ) are an Anishinaabe people whose homeland (''Ojibwewaki'' ᐅᒋᐺᐘᑭ) covers much of the Great Lakes region and the Great Plains, n ...
, and
Potawatomi
The Potawatomi (), also spelled Pottawatomi and Pottawatomie (among many variations), are a Native American tribe of the Great Plains, upper Mississippi River, and western Great Lakes region. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, ...
. The Potawatomi founded two villages in the area of what is now Ann Arbor in about 1774. Other tribes that inhabited the area included the
Meskwaki
The Meskwaki (sometimes spelled Mesquaki), also known by the European exonyms Fox Indians or the Fox, are a Native American people. They have been closely linked to the Sauk people of the same language family. In the Meskwaki language, th ...
,
Wyandots, and
Sauk. These peoples established several trails that converged on present-day Ann Arbor. The land that included Washtenaw County was ceded to the U.S. by the Odawa, Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Wyandot in the
Treaty of Detroit
The Treaty of Detroit was a treaty between the United States and the Ottawa, Chippewa, Wyandot and Potawatomi Native American nations. The treaty was signed in Detroit, Michigan on November 17, 1807, with William Hull, governor of the Mi ...
of 1807.
19th century
Ann Arbor was founded in 1824 by land speculators
John Allen and
Elisha Walker Rumsey. On May 25, 1824, the town
plat
In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Survey System, Public Lands Surveys to ...
was registered with
Wayne County as the Village of Annarbour, the earliest known use of the town's name. Allen and Rumsey decided to name it for their wives, both named Ann, and for the stands of
bur oak
''Quercus macrocarpa'', the bur oak or burr oak, is a species of oak tree native to eastern North America. It is in the white oak section, ''Quercus'' sect. ''Quercus'', and is also called mossycup oak, mossycup white oak, blue oak, or scrub ...
in the of land they purchased for $800 () from the federal government at $1.25 per acre.
[Marwil, pp. 1–2] The local
Ojibwa
The Ojibwe (; syll.: ᐅᒋᐺ; plural: ''Ojibweg'' ᐅᒋᐺᒃ) are an Anishinaabe people whose homeland (''Ojibwewaki'' ᐅᒋᐺᐘᑭ) covers much of the Great Lakes region and the northern plains, extending into the subarctic and thro ...
named the settlement , after the sound of Allen's
sawmill
A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...
.
Ann Arbor became the seat of Washtenaw County in 1827 and was incorporated as a village in 1833. The Ann Arbor Land Company, a group of speculators, set aside of undeveloped land and offered it to the state of Michigan as the site of the state capitol, but lost the bid to
Lansing
Lansing () is the capital city of the U.S. state of Michigan. The most populous city in Ingham County, parts of the city extend into Eaton County and north into Clinton County. It is the sixth-most populous city in Michigan with a popul ...
. In 1837, the property was accepted instead as the site of the
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
.

Since the university's establishment in the city in 1837, the histories of the University of Michigan and Ann Arbor have been closely linked. The town became a regional transportation hub in 1839 with the arrival of the
Michigan Central Railroad
The Michigan Central Railroad (reporting mark MC) was originally chartered in 1832 to establish rail service between Detroit, Michigan, and St. Joseph, Michigan. The railroad later operated in the states of Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois in th ...
, and a north–south railway connecting Ann Arbor to
Toledo and other markets to the south was established in 1878.
[Marwil, p. 49] Throughout the 1840s and the 1850s settlers continued to come to Ann Arbor. While the earlier settlers were primarily of British ancestry, the newer settlers also consisted of Germans, Irish, and Black people. In 1851, Ann Arbor was chartered as a city, though the city showed a drop in population during the
Depression of 1873.
It was not until the early 1880s that Ann Arbor again saw robust growth, with new immigrants from Greece, Italy, Russia, and Poland.
20th century
Ann Arbor saw increased growth in manufacturing, particularly in
milling
Milling may refer to:
* Milling (minting), forming narrow ridges around the edge of a coin
* Milling (grinding), breaking solid materials into smaller pieces by grinding, crushing, or cutting in a mill
* Milling (machining), a process of using ro ...
.
Ann Arbor's
Jewish
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
community also grew after the turn of the 20th century, and its first and oldest synagogue,
Beth Israel Congregation, was established in 1916.
Following a 1956 vote, the city of East Ann Arbor merged with Ann Arbor to encompass the eastern sections of the city.
In 1960, Ann Arbor voters approved a $2.3 million
bond issue
In finance, a bond is a type of security under which the issuer (debtor) owes the holder (creditor) a debt, and is obliged – depending on the terms – to provide cash flow to the creditor (e.g. repay the principal (i.e. amount borrowed) of t ...
(equivalent to $ million in ) to build the current city hall, which was designed by architect
Alden B. Dow. The City Hall opened in 1963. In 1995, the building was renamed the Guy C. Larcom Jr. Municipal Building in honor of the longtime city administrator who championed the building's construction.
During the 1960s and 1970s, the city gained a reputation as an important center for liberal politics. Ann Arbor also became a locus for left-wing activism and
anti-Vietnam War movement, as well as the student movement. The first major meetings of the national left-wing campus group
Students for a Democratic Society
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was a national student activist organization in the United States during the 1960s and was one of the principal representations of the New Left. Disdaining permanent leaders, hierarchical relationships a ...
took place in Ann Arbor in 1960; in 1965, the city was home to the first U.S.
teach-in against the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
. During the ensuing 15 years, many
countercultural
A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Ho ...
and
New Left
The New Left was a broad political movement that emerged from the counterculture of the 1960s and continued through the 1970s. It consisted of activists in the Western world who, in reaction to the era's liberal establishment, campaigned for freer ...
enterprises sprang up and developed large constituencies within the city.
These influences washed into municipal politics during the early and mid-1970s when three members of the
Human Rights Party (HRP) won city council seats on the strength of the student vote. During their time on the council, HRP representatives fought for measures including pioneering
antidiscrimination ordinances,
measures decriminalizing marijuana possession, and a
rent-control ordinance.

Two religious-conservative institutions were created in Ann Arbor; the
Word of God (established in 1967), a
charismatic
Charisma () is a personal quality of magnetic charm, persuasion, or appeal.
In the fields of sociology and political science, psychology, and management, the term ''charismatic'' describes a type of leadership.
In Christian theology, the term ...
inter-denominational movement;
and the
Thomas More Law Center (established in 1999). Since 1998, Ann Arbor is also the home office of the
Anthroposophical Society in the United States, an organization dedicated to supporting the community of those interested in the inner path of schooling known as
anthroposophy
Anthroposophy is a spiritual new religious movementSources for 'new religious movement': which was founded in the early 20th century by the esotericist Rudolf Steiner that postulates the existence of an objective, intellectually comprehensibl ...
, developed by
Rudolf Steiner
Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner (; 27 or 25 February 1861 – 30 March 1925) was an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century ...
.
[.]
21st century
In the past several decades, Ann Arbor has grappled with the effects of sharply rising land values,
gentrification
Gentrification is the process whereby the character of a neighborhood changes through the influx of more Wealth, affluent residents (the "gentry") and investment. There is no agreed-upon definition of gentrification. In public discourse, it has ...
, and
urban sprawl
Urban sprawl (also known as suburban sprawl or urban encroachment) is defined as "the spreading of urban developments (such as houses and shopping centers) on undeveloped land near a city". Urban sprawl has been described as the unrestricted ...
stretching into outlying countryside. On November 4, 2003, voters approved a
greenbelt plan under which the city government bought development rights on agricultural parcels of land adjacent to Ann Arbor to preserve them from sprawling development.
Since then, a vociferous local debate has hinged on how and whether to accommodate and guide development within city limits. Ann Arbor consistently ranks in the "top places to live" lists published by various mainstream media outlets every year.

In 2016, the city changed mayoral terms from two years to four. Until 2017, City Council held annual elections in which half of the seats (one from each ward) were elected to 2-year terms. These elections were staggered, with each ward having one of its seats up for election in odd years and its other seat up for election in even years. Beginning in 2018 the city council has had staggered elections to 4-year terms in even years. This means that half of the members (one from each ward) are elected in presidential election years, while the other half are elected in mid-term election years. To facilitate this change in scheduling, the 2017 election elected members to terms that lasted 3-years.
In 2020, partly as a response to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, the city government opened several downtown streets to pedestrians, limiting their use by motor vehicles to
emergency vehicles during summertime weekends. In addition to providing a large
pedestrian mall
Pedestrian zones (also known as auto-free zones and car-free zones, as pedestrian precincts in British English, and as pedestrian malls in the United States and Australia) are areas of a city or town restricted to use by people on foot or ...
, these changes allow restaurants to use more of the sidewalks and part of the street for outdoor seating. These changes were popular enough that in 2021 the city council extended the dates from March to November, continuing the schedule of cordoning off cars from Thursday evening until Monday morning.
Geography
Ann Arbor is located along the
Huron River
The Huron River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed November 7, 2011 river in southeast Michigan, southeastern Michigan, rising out of the Huron Swamp in Springfie ...
, which flows southeast through the city on its way to
Lake Erie
Lake Erie ( ) is the fourth-largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and also has the shortest avera ...
. It is the central core of the
Ann Arbor, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area, which consists of the whole of Washtenaw County, but is also a part of the
Metro Detroit
Metro Detroit is a major metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Michigan, consisting of the city of Detroit and over 200 municipalities in the Southeast Michigan, surrounding area. There are varied definitions of the area, including the officia ...
Combined Statistical Area designated by the
U.S. Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The U.S. Census Bureau is part of the U ...
.
While it borders only
Townships, the built-up nature of the sections of
Pittsfield and
Ypsilanti townships between Ann Arbor and the city of
Ypsilanti make the two effectively a single
urban area
An urban area is a human settlement with a high population density and an infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas originate through urbanization, and researchers categorize them as cities, towns, conurbations or suburbs. In urbani ...
.
Landscape

The landscape of Ann Arbor consists of hills and valleys, with the terrain becoming steeper near the
Huron River
The Huron River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed November 7, 2011 river in southeast Michigan, southeastern Michigan, rising out of the Huron Swamp in Springfie ...
. The elevation ranges from about along the Huron River to on the city's west side, near the intersection of Maple Road and Pauline Blvd.
Ann Arbor Municipal Airport, which is south of the city at , has an elevation of . Ann Arbor is nicknamed "Tree Town", both due to its name and to the dense forestation of its parks and residential areas. The city contains more than 50,000 trees along its streets and an equal number in parks. Into the early 2000s, the
emerald ash borer has destroyed many of the city's approximately 10,500
ash tree
''Fraxinus'' (), commonly called ash, is a genus of plants in the olive and lilac family, Oleaceae, and comprises 45–65 species of usually medium-to-large trees, most of which are deciduous trees, although some subtropical species are evergr ...
s.
The city contains over 160 municipal parks ranging from small neighborhood green spots to large recreation areas such as
Buhr Park. Several large city parks and a university park border sections of the Huron River. Fuller Recreation Area, near the
University Hospital
A teaching hospital or university hospital is a hospital or medical center that provides medical education and training to future and current health professionals. Teaching hospitals are almost always affiliated with one or more universities a ...
complex, contains sports fields, pedestrian and
bike path
A bike path or a cycle path is a bikeway separated from motorized traffic and dedicated to cycling or shared with pedestrians or other non-motorized users. In the US a bike path sometimes encompasses '' shared use paths'', "multi-use path", or ...
s, and swimming pools. Opened in the summer of 2014, the city-funded
Ann Arbor Skatepark is a
skatepark
A skatepark, or skate park, is a purpose-built recreational environment made for skateboarding, BMX, Freestyle scootering, scootering, and aggressive inline skating. A skatepark may contain half-pipes, handrails, funboxes, vert ramps, stairw ...
located within Veterans Memorial Park. The city is also home to the
Washtenaw County-owned
County Farm Park. The
Nichols Arboretum, owned by the
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
, is a
arboretum
An arboretum (: arboreta) is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees and shrubs of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, many modern arbor ...
that contains hundreds of plant and tree species. It is on the city's east side, near the university's Central Campus. Located across the Huron River just beyond the university's North Campus is the university's
Matthaei Botanical Gardens, which contains 300 acres of gardens and a large tropical conservatory. Several other green spaces around Ann Arbor are privately owned or owned by government agencies such as
Ann Arbor Public Schools.
Cityscape

The cityscape of Ann Arbor is heavily influenced by the
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
, with 22% of downtown and 9.4% of the total land owned by the university. The downtown Central Campus contains some of the oldest extant structures in the city—including the President's House, built in 1840—and separates the South University District from the other three downtown commercial districts. These other three districts,
Kerrytown, State Street, and Main Street are contiguous near the northwestern corner of the university.
Major landmarks in downtown Ann Arbor include the
Michigan Theater,
The Diag, and
Tower Plaza, a 26-story condominium building that is the city's tallest building. Downtown is also home to several
Fairy Doors and other public art installations.
Three commercial areas south of downtown include the areas near I-94 and Ann Arbor-Saline Road,
Briarwood Mall
Briarwood Mall is a shopping mall in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. The mall's three anchor stores are Macy's North, Macy's, JCPenney, and Von Maur. Surrounded by office and other development, the mall anchors the southern Ann Arbor comme ...
, and the South Industrial area. Other commercial areas include the Arborland/Washtenaw Avenue and Packard Road merchants on the east side, the Plymouth Road area in the northeast, and the Westgate/West Stadium areas on the west side.
Downtown contains a mix of 19th- and early-20th-century structures and modern-style buildings, as well as a
farmers' market
A farmers' market (or farmers market according to the AP stylebook, also farmer's market in the Cambridge Dictionary) is a physical retail marketplace intended to sell foods directly by farmers to consumers. Farmers' markets may be indoors or ...
in the Kerrytown district. The city's commercial districts are composed mostly of two- to four-story structures, although downtown and the area near Briarwood Mall contain a small number of high-rise buildings.
Ann Arbor's residential neighborhoods contain architectural styles ranging from classic 19th- and early 20th-century designs to
ranch-style house
Ranch (also known as American ranch, California ranch, rambler, or rancher) is a domestic architectural style that originated in the United States. The ranch-style house is noted for its long, close-to-the-ground profile, and wide open layout. ...
s. Among these homes are a number of
kit houses built in the early 20th century. Contemporary-style houses are farther from the downtown district.
Surrounding the University of Michigan campus are houses and apartment complexes occupied primarily by student renters. The 19th-century buildings and streetscape of the Old West Side neighborhood have been preserved virtually intact; in 1972, the district was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
(NRHP), and it is further protected by city ordinances and a nonprofit preservation group.
Climate
Ann Arbor has a typically
Midwestern
The Midwestern United States (also referred to as the Midwest, the Heartland or the American Midwest) is one of the four census regions defined by the United States Census Bureau. It occupies the northern central part of the United States. It ...
humid continental climate
A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...
(
Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer
* Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan
* Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...
''Dfa''), which is influenced by the
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes spanning the Canada–United States border. The five lakes are Lake Superior, Superior, Lake Michigan, Michigan, Lake Huron, H ...
. There are four distinct seasons: winters are cold and snowy, with average highs around . Summers are warm to hot and humid, with average highs around and with slightly more precipitation. Spring and autumn are transitional between the two. The area experiences
lake effect weather, primarily in the form of increased cloudiness during late fall and early winter. The monthly daily average temperature in July is , while the same figure for January is . Temperatures reach or exceed on 10 days, and drop to or below on 4.6 nights. Precipitation tends to be the heaviest during the summer months, but most frequent during winter. Snowfall, which normally occurs from November to April but occasionally starts in October, averages per season. The lowest recorded temperature was on February 11, 1885, and the highest recorded temperature was on July 24, 1934.
Demographics
Ann Arbor has seen consistent growth in population between all decennial censuses since 1860 with the exception of the 2010 census which reported almost no growth from the previous census. As of the 2020 U.S. census, there were 123,851 people and 49,337 households residing in the city, with a population density of .
The racial makeup of the city including Hispanics in the racial categories was 67.6%
White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
, 6.8%
Black
Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...
, 0.2%
Native American, 15.7%
Asian, 0.1%
Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, 1.8% from
other races, and 7.9% from two or more races.
Hispanic
The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...
or
Latino residents of any race made up 5.5% of the population. Ann Arbor has a small population of
Arab Americans
Arab Americans ( or ) are Americans who trace ancestry to any of the Arab immigration to the United States, various waves of immigrants from the Arabic-speaking countries. In the United States census, Arabs are racially classified as White Amer ...
, including students as well as local
Lebanese and
Palestinians
Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine.
*: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenou ...
,
and a large community of
Japanese nationals.
According to the 2022
American Community Survey
The American Community Survey (ACS) is an annual demographics survey program conducted by the United States Census Bureau. It regularly gathers information previously contained only in the long form of the United States census, decennial census ...
estimates, out of 49,337 households, 33.8% were married-couple households, 9.8% were
cohabiting couple households, 26.1% had a male householder with no spouse present, and 30.4% had a female householder with no spouse present. 18.4% of the households had individuals under the age of 18 living in them, and 20.1% had individuals over age 65 living in them. The average household size was 2.22 people and the average family size was 2.78 people.
The median age was 25.9; 12.2% of the population was under age 18, and 12.3% was age 65 or older.
The percentage of city residents age 25 years or older with at least a
high school degree was 97.8% while 77.5% had a
bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...
or higher, which is higher than the U.S. national percentage of 89.1% for persons age 25 years or older with at least a high school degree and 34.3% with a bachelor's degree or higher.
The
median household income
The median income is the income amount that divides a population into two groups, half having an income above that amount, and half having an income below that amount. It may differ from the mean (or average) income. Both of these are ways of und ...
in 2022 was $78,740 (versus the U.S. national figure of $75,149),
with family households having a median income of $126,292.
The
per capita income
Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year.
In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...
for the city was $52,276, which is higher than the U.S. national per capita income of $41,261.
Males working
full-time job
A full-time job is employment in which workers work a minimum number of hours defined as such by their employer.
Overview
Fulltime employment often comes with benefits that are not typically offered to part-time, temporary, or flexible worke ...
s had median earnings of $86,970 compared to $61,543 for females.
Out of the 109,973 people with a determined poverty status, 23.1% were below the
poverty line
The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...
compared to the U.S. national poverty rate of 11.1%;
the age group with the highest percentage below the poverty level was persons between 18 and 34 years at 43.0% while other age groups have percentages between 2.7% and 7.7%. Further, 3.5% of minors and 7.7% of seniors were below the poverty line.
Crime
According to the
Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program in 2022, Ann Arbor had 371 reported
violent crime
A violent crime, violent felony, crime of violence or crime of a violent nature is a crime in which an offender or perpetrator uses or threatens to use harmful Force (law), force upon a victim. This entails both crimes in which the violence, vio ...
s (which include homicide, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault) and 2069 reported
property crime
Property crime is a category of crime, usually involving private property, that includes, among other crimes, burglary, larceny, theft, motor vehicle theft, arson, shoplifting, and vandalism. Property crime is a crime to obtain money, property, ...
s (which include arson, burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft). With a violent crime rate of 309.5 per 100,000 people, the city's violent crime rate is lower than Michigan's rate of 461 per 100,000 people and the U.S. national rate of 380.7 per 100,000 people. However, Ann Arbor's property crime rate, at 1726.0 per 100,000 people, is higher than Michigan's property crime rate of 1536.8 per 100,000 people and lower than the U.S. national property crime rate of 1954.4 per 100,000 people.
Economy
The University of Michigan shapes Ann Arbor's economy significantly. It employs about 30,000 workers which includes about 12,000 in the medical center. Other employers are drawn to the area by the university's research and development money, and by its graduates.
High tech
High technology (high tech or high-tech), also known as advanced technology (advanced tech) or exotechnology, is technology that is at the state of the art, cutting edge: the highest form of technology available. It can be defined as either the ...
, health services and
biotechnology
Biotechnology is a multidisciplinary field that involves the integration of natural sciences and Engineering Science, engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms and parts thereof for products and services. Specialists ...
are other major components of the city's economy; numerous medical offices, laboratories, and associated companies are located in the city.
Automobile manufacturers, such as
General Motors
General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...
and
Visteon
Visteon Corporation (VC) is an American global automotive electronics supplier based in Van Buren Township, Michigan. Visteon designs, engineers, and manufactures vehicle cockpit electronics products, connected car services and electrification p ...
, also employ residents.
High tech companies have located in the area since the 1930s, when
International Radio Corporation introduced the first mass-produced AC/DC radio (the Kadette, in 1931) as well as the first pocket radio (the Kadette Jr., in 1933). Current firms include
(provider of Internet traffic engineering and security systems),
Arbortext
Arbortext Advanced Print Publisher (APP, formerly Advent 3B2) is commercial typesetting software application sold by Parametric Technology Corporation.
The software contains an automated publishing engine that can manually or automatically produc ...
(provider of XML-based publishing software),
JSTOR
JSTOR ( ; short for ''Journal Storage'') is a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources founded in 1994. Originally containing digitized back issues of academic journals, it now encompasses books and other primary source ...
(the digital scholarly journal archive),
Truven Health Analytics
Merative L.P., formerly IBM Watson Health, is an American medical technology company that provides products and services that help clients facilitate medical research, clinical research, real world evidence, and healthcare services, through the ...
, and
ProQuest
ProQuest LLC is an Ann Arbor, Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan-based global information-content and technology company, founded in 1938 as University Microfilms by Eugene Power.
ProQuest is known for its applications and information services for l ...
, which includes
UMI. Duo Security, a cloud-based access security provider of two-factor authentication, is headquartered in Ann Arbor. It was formerly a
unicorn
The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since Classical antiquity, antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn (anatomy), horn projecting from its forehead.
In European literature and art, the unico ...
and continues to be headquartered in Ann Arbor after its acquisition by
Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems, Inc. (using the trademark Cisco) is an American multinational corporation, multinational digital communications technology conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, m ...
. In November 2021, semiconductor test equipment company
KLA Corporation opened a new North American headquarters in Ann Arbor.
Ann Arbor is the home to
Internet2
Internet2 is a not-for-profit United States computer network
A computer network is a collection of communicating computers and other devices, such as printers and smart phones. In order to communicate, the computers and devices must ...
and the
Merit Network
Merit Network, Inc., is a nonprofit member-governed organization providing high-performance computer networking and related services to educational, government, health care, and Non-profit organization, nonprofit organizations, primarily in Michig ...
, a not-for-profit research and education computer network. Both are located in the South State Commons 2 building on South State Street. The city is also home to a secondary office of Google's
AdWords
Google Ads, formerly known as Google Adwords, is an online advertising platform developed by Google, where advertisers bid to display brief advertisements, service offerings, product listings, and videos to web users. It can place ads in the res ...
program—the company's primary revenue stream. Ann Arbor is home to more than twenty video game and XR studios of varying sizes. The city plays host to a regional chapter of the
International Game Developers Association (IGDA) which hosts monthly meetups, presentations, and educational events.
The city is the home of many research and engineering centers, including the
Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory
The Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL) is a laboratory in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR). It is headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with a subsidiar ...
that is operated by
NOAA
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, charting the seas, conducting deep-sea exploratio ...
and the
Michigan Tech Research Institute. Other research centers sited in the city are the
United States Environmental Protection Agency
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent agency of the United States government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it began operation on De ...
's National Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Laboratory and the
Toyota Technical Center. The city is also home to National Sanitation Foundation International (
NSF International
NSF (an initialism for National Sanitation Foundation) is a public health organization. Written by employees of the National Sanitation Foundation. headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan that tests and certifies foods, water, and consumer produc ...
), the nonprofit non-governmental organization that develops generally accepted standards for a variety of public health related industries and subject areas.
Non-high tech companies in Ann Arbor include
Domino's Pizza
Domino's Pizza, Inc., commonly referred to as Domino's, is an American multinational pizza restaurant chain founded in 1960 and led by CEO Russell Weiner. The corporation is Delaware General Corporation Law, Delaware-domiciled and headquartered ...
, headquartered on
Domino's Farms, a
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright Sr. (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed List of Frank Lloyd Wright works, more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key ...
-inspired complex just northeast of the city. Another Ann Arbor-based company is
Zingerman's Delicatessen, which serves sandwiches and has developed businesses under a variety of brand names. Avfuel, a global supplier of aviation fuels and services, is headquartered in Ann Arbor as is
Pinkerton, a detective and private security firm. Many
cooperative
A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomy, autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned a ...
enterprises were founded in the city; among those that remain are the People's Food Co-op and the
Inter-Cooperative Council at the University of Michigan, a
student housing cooperative
A student housing cooperative, also known as co-operative housing, is a housing cooperative for student members. Members live in alternative cooperative housing that they personally own and maintain. These houses are designed to lower housing costs ...
founded in 1937. There are also three
cohousing
Cohousing is an intentional, self-governing, cooperative community where residents live in private homes often clustered around shared space. The term originated in Denmark in the late 1960s. Families live in attached or single-family homes wi ...
communities—
Sunward, Great Oak, and Touchstone—located immediately to the west of the city limits.
Culture
Several performing arts groups and facilities are on the University of Michigan's campus, as are
museums
A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private collections that are used by researchers ...
dedicated to art,
archaeology
Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...
, and natural history and sciences. Founded in 1879, the
University Musical Society is an independent performing arts organization that presents over 60 events each year, bringing international artists in music, dance, and theater. Since 2001
Shakespeare in the Arb has presented one play by Shakespeare each June, in a large park near downtown.
Regional and local performing arts groups not associated with the university include the Ann Arbor Civic Theatre, the Arbor Opera Theater, the
Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra,
The Ark,
and
Performance Network Theatre.
State Theatre and the adjacent
Michigan Theater are a
movie palace
A movie palace (or picture palace in the United Kingdom) is a large, elaborately decorated movie theater built from the 1910s to the 1940s. The late 1920s saw the peak of the movie palace, with hundreds opening every year between 1925 and 1930. Wi ...
and a
performing arts center
Performing arts center/centre (see spelling differences), often abbreviated as PAC, is usually a complex housing performance spaces for various performing arts, including dance, music, and theatre. In some cases it refers to a single multi-use s ...
, respectively.
Another unique piece of artistic expression in Ann Arbor is the
fairy doors. These small portals are examples of
installation art
Installation art is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific art, site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior intervent ...
and can be found throughout the downtown area.

The
Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum, an interactive
science center, is located in a renovated and expanded historic downtown fire station. The Ann Arbor Art Center is a
nonprofit
A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...
that organizes art activities and exhibitions. Aside from the
Ann Arbor District Library, which maintains four branch outlets in addition to its main downtown building, and being the home to the
Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, Ann Arbor ranks first among U.S. cities in the number of booksellers and books sold per capita.
Several annual events—many of them centered on performing and visual arts—draw visitors to Ann Arbor. One such event is the
Ann Arbor Art Fairs, a set of four concurrent juried fairs held on downtown streets. Scheduled on Thursday through Sunday of the third week of July, the fairs draw upward of half a million visitors. Another is the
Ann Arbor Film Festival, held during the third week of March, which receives more than 2,500 submissions annually from more than 40 countries and serves as one of a handful of Academy Award–qualifying festivals in the United States.
Ann Arbor has a long history of openness to marijuana, given Ann Arbor's decriminalization of
cannabis
''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae that is widely accepted as being indigenous to and originating from the continent of Asia. However, the number of species is disputed, with as many as three species be ...
, the large number of
medical marijuana
Medical cannabis, medicinal cannabis or medical marijuana (MMJ) refers to Cannabis (drug), cannabis products and cannabinoid, cannabinoid molecules that are prescription drug, prescribed by physicians for their patients. The use of cannabi ...
dispensaries in the city (one dispensary, called People's Co-op, was directly across the street from
Michigan Stadium
Michigan Stadium, nicknamed "the Big House," is the American football stadium for the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It is the largest stadium in the United States and the Western Hemisphere, the third-largest stadium in the wo ...
until zoning forced it to move one mile to the west), the large number of pro-marijuana residents, and the annual
Hash Bash: an event that is held on the first Saturday of April. Until (at least) the successful passage of Michigan's medical marijuana law, the event had arguably strayed from its initial intent, although for years, a number of attendees have received serious legal responses due to marijuana use on University of Michigan property, which does not fall under the city's progressive and compassionate ticketing program.
A person from Ann Arbor is called an "Ann Arborite", and many long-time residents call themselves "townies". The city itself is often called "A²" ("A-squared") or "A2" ("A two") or "AA", "The Deuce" (mainly by Chicagoans), and "Tree Town". With
tongue-in-cheek
Tongue-in-cheek is an idiom that describes a humorous or sarcastic statement expressed in a serious manner.
History
The phrase originally expressed contempt, but by 1842 had acquired its modern meaning. Early users of the phrase include Sir Walte ...
reference to the city's liberal political leanings, some occasionally refer to Ann Arbor as "The People's Republic of Ann Arbor" or "25 square miles surrounded by reality." In ''
A Prairie Home Companion
''A Prairie Home Companion'' was a weekly radio variety show created and hosted by Garrison Keillor that aired live from 1974 to 2016. In 2016, musician Chris Thile took over as host, and the successor show was eventually renamed ''Live from He ...
'' broadcast from Ann Arbor,
Garrison Keillor described Ann Arbor as "a city where people discuss socialism, but only in the fanciest restaurants." Ann Arbor sometimes appears on
citation index
A citation index is a kind of bibliographic index, an index of citations between publications, allowing the user to easily establish which later documents cite which earlier documents. A form of citation index is first found in 12th-century H ...
es as an author, instead of a location, often with the
academic degree
An academic degree is a qualification awarded to a student upon successful completion of a course of study in higher education, usually at a college or university. These institutions often offer degrees at various levels, usually divided into und ...
''MI'', a misunderstanding of the abbreviation for Michigan.
Sports
Ann Arbor is a major center for college sports, most notably at the
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
. Several well-known college sports facilities exist in the city, including
Michigan Stadium
Michigan Stadium, nicknamed "the Big House," is the American football stadium for the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It is the largest stadium in the United States and the Western Hemisphere, the third-largest stadium in the wo ...
, the largest
American football
American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...
stadium and the
third-largest stadium of any kind in the world with a capacity of 107,601. The stadium is colloquially known as "The Big House" due to its status as the largest American football stadium.
Crisler Center and
Yost Ice Arena play host to the school's basketball (both
men's and
women's) and
ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...
teams, respectively.
Concordia University
Concordia University () is a Public university, public English-language research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1974 following the merger of Loyola College (Montreal), Loyola College and Sir George Williams Universit ...
, a member of the
NAIA, also fields sports teams.
In semi-professional sports Ann Arbor is represented in the
NPSL by
AFC Ann Arbor, a soccer club founded in 2014 who call themselves The Mighty Oak.
Government
As the
county seat
A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...
of
Washtenaw County, the Washtenaw County Trial Court (22nd Circuit Court) is located in Ann Arbor at the Washtenaw County Courthouse on Main Street. Seven judges serve on the court. The 15th
Michigan district court, which serves only the city itself, is located within the Ann Arbor Justice Center, immediately next to city hall. The
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan and
Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit are also located in downtown Ann Arbor, at the federal building on Liberty Street.
In the
Michigan Legislature
The Michigan Legislature is the legislature of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is organized as a bicameral body composed of the Senate (the upper chamber) and the House of Representatives (the lower chamber). Article IV of the Michigan Con ...
, the city is split between
Districts 23,
33,
47, and
48 in the
Michigan House of Representatives
The Michigan House of Representatives is the lower house of the Michigan Legislature. There are 110 members, each of whom is elected from constituencies having approximately 77,000 to 91,000 residents, based on population figures from the 2020 ...
. In the
Michigan Senate
The Michigan Senate is the upper house of the Michigan Legislature. Along with the Michigan House of Representatives, it composes the state legislature, which has powers, roles and duties defined by Article IV of the Michigan Constitution, ado ...
, Ann Arbor is covered by
Districts 14 and
15. Ann Arbor is within the
6th congressional district, currently represented by
Debbie Dingell
Deborah Ann Dingell ( ; ; November 23, 1953) is an American politician serving as a United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative from Michigan since 2015, representing the state's Michigan's 6th congressional district, 6th congres ...
.

Ann Arbor has a
council–manager form of government, with 11 voting members: the mayor and 10 city council members. Each of the city's five wards are represented by two council members, with the mayor elected
at-large
At large (''before a noun'': at-large) is a description for members of a governing body who are elected or appointed to represent a whole membership or population (notably a city, county, state, province, nation, club or association), rather tha ...
during
midterm years. Half of the council members are elected in midterm years, with the other in general election years. The mayor is the presiding officer of the city council and has the power to appoint all council committee members as well as board and commission members, with the approval of the city council. The current mayor of Ann Arbor is
Christopher Taylor, a
Democrat who was elected as mayor in 2014. Day-to-day city operations are managed by a
city administrator chosen by the city council. While Democrats, hold the mayorship and all ten council seats, Ann Arbor has two major political factions.
A major source of this local divide is differences in views on the city's growth.
Education
Primary and secondary education
Public schools are part of the
Ann Arbor Public Schools (AAPS) district. AAPS has one of the country's leading music programs. For the 2021–2022 school year, 17,070 students were enrolled in the Ann Arbor Public Schools. Notable schools include
Pioneer,
Huron,
Skyline
A skyline is the wikt:outline, outline or shape viewed near the horizon. It can be created by a city's overall structure, or by human intervention in a rural area, rural setting, or in nature that is formed where the sky meets buildings or the ...
,
Community
A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...
high schools, Pathways to Success Academic Campus, and
Ann Arbor Open School. The district has a preschool center with both free and tuition-based programs for preschoolers in the district. The University High School, a "demonstration school" with teachers drawn from the University of Michigan's education program, was part of the school system from 1924 to 1968.
Ann Arbor is home to several private schools, including
Clonlara School,
Michigan Islamic Academy
Michigan Islamic Academy (MIA) is a Kindergarten through grade 12 Islamic private day school in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The school was opened in 1985.
As of 2015 it had 213 students. 75 of them lived in Ann Arbor, 52 lived in Ypsilanti, 35 in Cant ...
, and
Greenhills School
Greenhills School is an independent college preparatory school (grades 6–12) in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States.
Awards and recognition
Greenhills Upper School was recognized as one of six national Intel Schools of Distinction in 2007 for ...
, a prep school. The city is also home to several
charter schools
A charter school is a school that receives government funding but operates independently of the established state school system in which it is located. It is independent in the sense that it operates according to the basic principle of autono ...
such as Central Academy (Michigan) (PreK–12) of the
Global Educational Excellence (GEE) charter school company.
Higher education
The
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
dominates the city of Ann Arbor, providing the city with its distinctive
college-town character. University buildings are located in the center of the city and the campus is directly adjacent to the State Street and South University downtown areas.
Other local colleges and universities include
Concordia University Ann Arbor, a
Lutheran
Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...
liberal-arts institution.
Washtenaw Community College is located in neighboring
Ann Arbor Township. In 2000, the
Ave Maria School of Law, a Roman Catholic law school established by
Domino's Pizza
Domino's Pizza, Inc., commonly referred to as Domino's, is an American multinational pizza restaurant chain founded in 1960 and led by CEO Russell Weiner. The corporation is Delaware General Corporation Law, Delaware-domiciled and headquartered ...
founder
Tom Monaghan
Thomas Stephen Monaghan (born March 25, 1937) is an American entrepreneur and Philanthropy, philanthropist who founded Domino's Pizza in 1960. He also owns the Domino's Farms Office Park in Ann Arbor Charter Township, Michigan, and owned the Det ...
, opened in northeastern Ann Arbor, but the school moved to
Ave Maria, Florida in 2009, and the
Thomas M. Cooley Law School acquired the former Ave Maria buildings for use as a branch campus.
Media
''
The Ann Arbor News
''The Ann Arbor News'' is a newspaper serving Washtenaw and Livingston counties in Michigan. Published daily online through MLive.com, the paper also publishes print editions on Thursdays and Sundays.
History
Original publication
Published i ...
'', owned by the Michigan-based
Booth Newspapers
MLive Media Group, originally known as Booth Newspapers, or Booth Michigan, is a media group that produces newspapers from the state of Michigan in Cleveland, Ohio. Founded by George Gough Booth with his two brothers, Booth Newspapers was sold ...
chain, was the major newspaper serving Ann Arbor and the rest of Washtenaw County. The newspaper ended its 174-year daily print run in 2009 due to economic difficulties, and began producing two printed editions a week under the name AnnArbor.com. Ann Arbor has been said to be the first significant city to lose its only daily paper. The publication resumed using its former name in 2013, and also produces a daily digital edition named MLive.com. Another Ann Arbor-based publication that has ceased production was the ''Ann Arbor Paper'', a free monthly. The ''Ann Arbor Chronicle'', an online newspaper, covered local news, including meetings of the library board, county commission, and DDA until September 3, 2014.
Current publications in the city include the ''Ann Arbor Journal'' (''A2 Journal''), a weekly
community newspaper
Community journalism is locally-oriented, professional news coverage that typically focuses on city neighborhoods, individual suburbs or small towns, rather than metropolitan, state, national or world news.
If it covers wider topics, community ...
; the ''
Ann Arbor Observer'', a free monthly local magazine; and ''Current'', a free entertainment-focused
alt-weekly. The ''
Ann Arbor Business Review'' covers local business in the area. ''
Car and Driver
''Car and Driver'' (''CD'' or ''C/D'') is an American automotive enthusiast magazine first published in 1955. In 2006 its total circulation was 1.23 million. It is owned by Hearst Magazines, who purchased it from its prior owner Hachette Fi ...
'' magazine and ''
Automobile Magazine
An automobile magazine is a magazine with news and reports on cars and the Automotive industry, automobile industry.
Automobile magazines may feature new car tests and comparisons, which describe advantages and disadvantages of similar models ...
'' are also based in Ann Arbor. The University of Michigan is served by many student publications, including the independent ''
Michigan Daily''
student newspaper
A student publication is a media outlet such as a newspaper, magazine, television show, or radio station Graduate student journal, produced by students at an educational institution. These publications typically cover local and school-related new ...
, which reports on local, state, and regional issues in addition to campus news.
Four major
AM radio stations based in or near Ann Arbor are
WAAM 1600, a conservative news and talk station;
WLBY 1290, a business news and talk station;
WDEO 990, Catholic radio; and
WTKA 1050, which is primarily a sports station. The city's
FM stations include
NPR
National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...
affiliate
WUOM 91.7; country station
WWWW 102.9; and adult-alternative station
WQKL 107.1. Freeform station
WCBN-FM 88.3 is a local community radio/
college radio
Campus radio (also known as college radio, university radio or student radio) is a type of radio station that is run by the students of a college, university or other educational institution. Programming may be exclusively created or produced ...
station operated by the students of the University of Michigan featuring noncommercial, eclectic music and public-affairs programming.
The city is also served by public and commercial radio broadcasters in Ypsilanti, the Lansing/Jackson area, Detroit, Windsor, and Toledo.
Ann Arbor is part of the Detroit television market.
WPXD channel 31, the owned-and-operated Detroit outlet of the
ION Television network, is licensed to the city. Until its sign-off on August 31, 2017,
WHTV channel 18, a
MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV (stylized as mynetworkTV; unofficially abbreviated MNT or MNTV) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its Fox Television Stations ...
-affiliated station for the
Lansing
Lansing () is the capital city of the U.S. state of Michigan. The most populous city in Ingham County, parts of the city extend into Eaton County and north into Clinton County. It is the sixth-most populous city in Michigan with a popul ...
market, was broadcast from a transmitter in
Lyndon Township, west of Ann Arbor. Community Television Network (CTN) is a city-provided cable television channel with production facilities open to city residents and nonprofit organizations. Detroit and Toledo-area radio and television stations also serve Ann Arbor, and stations from Lansing and Windsor, Ontario, can be seen in parts of the area.
Infrastructure
Healthcare
The
University of Michigan Health System (UMHS) includes University Hospital, C.S. Mott Children's Hospital and Women's Hospital in its core complex. UMHS also operates out-patient clinics and facilities throughout the city. The area's other major medical centers include a large facility operated by the
Department of Veterans Affairs in Ann Arbor, and Saint Joseph Mercy Hospital in nearby
Superior Township.
Utilities
The city provides sewage disposal and water supply services, with water coming from the
Huron River
The Huron River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed November 7, 2011 river in southeast Michigan, southeastern Michigan, rising out of the Huron Swamp in Springfie ...
and groundwater sources. There are two
water-treatment plants, one main and three outlying reservoirs, four
pump stations, and two
water tower
A water tower is an elevated structure supporting a water tank constructed at a height sufficient to pressurize a water distribution system, distribution system for potable water, and to provide emergency storage for fire protection. Water towe ...
s. These facilities serve the city, which is divided into five water districts. The city's water department also operates four dams along the Huron River—
Argo
In Greek mythology, the ''Argo'' ( ; ) was the ship of Jason and the Argonauts. The ship was built with divine aid, and some ancient sources describe her as the first ship to sail the seas. The ''Argo'' carried the Argonauts on their quest fo ...
,
Barton,
Geddes, and
Superior—of which Barton and Superior provide
hydroelectric power
Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies 15% of the world's electricity, almost 4,210 TWh in 2023, which is more than all other Renewable energ ...
.
The city also offers waste management services, with
Recycle Ann Arbor handling recycling service. Other utilities are provided by private entities.
Electrical power
Electric power is the rate of transfer of electrical energy within a electric circuit, circuit. Its SI unit is the watt, the general unit of power (physics), power, defined as one joule per second. Standard prefixes apply to watts as with oth ...
and
gas
Gas is a state of matter that has neither a fixed volume nor a fixed shape and is a compressible fluid. A ''pure gas'' is made up of individual atoms (e.g. a noble gas like neon) or molecules of either a single type of atom ( elements such as ...
are provided by
DTE Energy.
AT&T Inc. is the primary wired telephone service provider for the area.
Cable TV
Cable television is a system of delivering television broadcast programming, programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This ...
service is primarily provided by
Comcast
Comcast Corporation, formerly known as Comcast Holdings,Before the AT&T Broadband, AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, not th ...
.
A plume of the industrial solvent
dioxane is migrating under the city from the contaminated Gelman Sciences, Inc. property on the westside of Ann Arbor. the average measured concentration was found to be 201.19 ppb, with the maximum being 6.000 ppm. While the
United States Environmental Protection Agency
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent agency of the United States government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it began operation on De ...
does not impose a federal limit on the level of the contaminant allowed in drinking water, the
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Gen ...
suggests a limit of 35
ppb. The Gelman plume is a potential threat to one of the City of Ann Arbor's drinking water sources, the
Huron River
The Huron River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed November 7, 2011 river in southeast Michigan, southeastern Michigan, rising out of the Huron Swamp in Springfie ...
, which flows through downtown Ann Arbor.
Transportation

The streets in downtown Ann Arbor conform to a
grid pattern
In urban planning, the grid plan, grid street plan, or gridiron plan is a type of city plan in which streets run at Angle#Types of angles, right angles to each other, forming a wikt:grid, grid.
Two inherent characteristics of the grid plan, fr ...
, though this pattern is less common in the surrounding areas. Major roads branch out from the downtown district to the highways surrounding the city. The city is belted by three freeways:
Interstate 94 (I-94), which runs along the southern and western portion of the city;
U.S. Highway 23 (US 23), which primarily runs along the eastern edge of Ann Arbor; and
M-14, which runs along the northern edge of the city. Other nearby highways include
US 12 (Michigan Avenue),
M-17 (Washtenaw Avenue), and
M-153 (Ford Road). Several of the major surface arteries lead to the I-94/M-14 interchange in the west, US 23 in the east, and the city's southern areas.
The Washtenaw County
Border-to-Border Trail connects Ann Arbor to Ypsilanti, mostly along the Huron River, for pedestrians, bicycles and other non-motorized transportation.
The
Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority (AAATA), which brands itself as "TheRide", operates public
bus
A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...
services throughout the city and nearby
Ypsilanti. The AAATA operates the
Blake Transit Center on Fourth Ave. in downtown Ann Arbor, and the Ypsilanti Transit Center. A separate
zero-fare
Free public transport, often called fare-free public transit or zero-fare public transport, is public transport which is fully funded by means other than collecting fares from passengers. It may be funded by national, regional or local governme ...
bus service operates within and between the University of Michigan campuses. In 2019, 36% of trips in Ann Arbor were taken by walking, biking or transit.
Since April 2012, the "AirRide" connects to
Detroit Metro Airport
Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport is the primary international airport serving Detroit and its surrounding metropolitan area, in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located in Romulus, a Detroit suburb. It is by far Michigan's busiest ...
a dozen times a day. The
Michigan Flyer, a service operated by Indian Trails, cooperates with AAATA for their AirRide and additionally offers bus service to East Lansing.
Greyhound Lines
Greyhound Lines, Inc. is an American operator of Intercity bus service, intercity bus services. Greyhound operates the largest intercity bus network in the United States, and also operates charter and Amtrak Thruway services, as well as interci ...
provides
intercity bus service
An intercity bus service (North American English) or intercity coach service (British English and Commonwealth English), also called a long-distance, express, over-the-road, commercial, long-haul, or highway bus or coach service, is a public t ...
.
Megabus has direct service to
Chicago, Illinois
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
, while a bus service is provided by
Amtrak Thruway
Amtrak Thruway is a system of through-ticketed transportation services to connect passengers with areas not served by Amtrak trains. In most cases these are dedicated motorcoach routes, but can also be non-dedicated intercity bus services, transi ...
for rail passengers making connections to services in
East Lansing
East Lansing is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. Most of the city lies within Ingham County, Michigan, Ingham County, although a small portion extends north into Clinton County, Michigan, Clinton County. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 ...
and
Toledo, Ohio
Toledo ( ) is a city in Lucas County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is located at the western end of Lake Erie along the Maumee River. Toledo is the List of cities in Ohio, fourth-most populous city in Ohio and List of United Sta ...
.
Amtrak, which provides service to the city at the
Ann Arbor Train Station, operates the ''
Wolverine
The wolverine ( , ; ''Gulo gulo''), also called the carcajou or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species, member of the family Mustelidae. It is a muscular carnivore and a solitary animal. The w ...
'' train between Chicago and
Pontiac via Detroit. The present-day train station neighbors the city's old Michigan Central Depot, which was renovated as a restaurant in 1970.
Ann Arbor Municipal Airport is a small, city-run
general aviation
General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations except for commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services for other ...
airport located south of I-94.
Sister cities
Ann Arbor has eight
sister cities
A sister city or a twin town relationship is International relations, a form of legal or social agreement between two geographically and politically distinct localities for the purpose of promoting cultural and commercial ties.
While there ar ...
:
*
Tübingen
Tübingen (; ) is a traditional college town, university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer (Neckar), Ammer rivers. about one in ...
,
Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...
, Germany (since 1965) The schools in Ann Arbor and Tübingen have regular exchanges.
*
Belize City
Belize City is the largest city in Belize. It was once the capital city, capital of the former British Honduras. According to the 2022 census, Belize City has a population of 63,999 people. It is at the mouth of the Haulover Creek, which is a ...
, Belize (since 1967)
*
Hikone, Shiga, Japan (since 1969) The schools in Ann Arbor and Hikone have regular exchanges.
*
Peterborough, Ontario
Peterborough ( ) is a city on the Otonabee River in Ontario, Canada, about 125 kilometres (78 miles) northeast of Toronto. According to the 2021 Census, the population of the City of Peterborough was 83,651. The population of the Peterborough ...
, Canada (since 1983)
*
Juigalpa, Chontales
Juigalpa () is the municipal seat of Juigalpa Municipality and the capital city of the Chontales Department of Nicaragua. It is located within the municipality of Juigalpa, approximately 140 km east of Managua on Carretera Rama, in the centr ...
, Nicaragua (since 1986)
*
Dakar
Dakar ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Senegal, largest city of Senegal. The Departments of Senegal, department of Dakar has a population of 1,278,469, and the population of the Dakar metropolitan area was at 4.0 mill ...
, Senegal (since 1997)
*
Remedios, Cuba
Remedios (), also known as San Juan de los Remedios, is a city and municipio, municipality located from the northern coast of Cuba, in the center of the island. It is the oldest Spanish settlement in the former Las Villas province. It is now par ...
(since 2003)
*
Lubny, Ukraine (since 2024)
See also
*
Ann Arbor staging
*
Ardis Publishing
*
List of people from Ann Arbor
Notes
References
Works cited
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External links
City's official websiteAnn Arbor Area Convention and Visitor's BureauCollection: "Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan" from the
University of Michigan Museum of Art
The University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) is one of the largest university art museums in the United States, located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with . Built as a war memorial in 1909 for the university's fallen alumni from the Civil War, Alu ...
Materials on Ann Arbor's historyfrom
HathiTrust
HathiTrust Digital Library is a large-scale collaborative repository of digital content from research libraries. Its holdings include content digitized via Google Books and the Internet Archive digitization initiatives, as well as content digit ...
{{Authority control
Populated places established in 1824
Academic enclaves
County seats in Michigan
Cities in Washtenaw County, Michigan
Metro Detroit
1824 establishments in Michigan Territory
Geographical articles missing image alternative text