One canonical set of district numbers
This page is the reference for District Relevance, the first question in the Four-Part Test. Every figure names its value, data year, source, and geography. Where a figure isn't published for the congressional district, the page says so and labels any statewide substitute. It never estimates a district number by applying a statewide percentage.
Published Sept. 25, 2026 · Last reviewed Sept. 25, 2026 · Corrections log
Where the district is
119th Congress boundariesMI-4 includes all of Allegan and Van Buren counties, most of Kalamazoo County (74.9% of its land area), and parts of Ottawa (45.5%), Berrien (23.6%), and Calhoun (20.1%) counties. It doesn't include Cass County. The cities of Battle Creek, Benton Harbor, Holland, Kalamazoo, Portage, St. Joseph, South Haven, and Zeeland lie entirely inside it. Sources: U.S. Census Bureau 119th Congress relationship files for counties and places.
Who lives here
ACS 2024 1-year unless noted| Measure | MI-4 | Michigan | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 785,367 (±7,132) | 10,140,459 | DP05 |
| Population, 2020 Census | 774,600 | 10,077,331 | 2020 Census, 119th Congress file, P2 |
| Median age | 37.7 years (±0.6) | 40.4 years | DP05 |
| Under 18 | 22.2% (±0.4) | 20.7% | DP05 |
| 65 and older | 18.1% (±0.3), about 142,000 people | 19.6% | DP05 |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 9.4% (±0.3) | 6.1% | DP05 |
| White alone, not Hispanic | 74.7% (±0.8) | 71.6% | DP05 |
| Bachelor's degree or higher (25 and older) | 34.7% (±1.2) | 33.3% | DP02 |
| Civilian veterans (18 and older) | 30,956 (±2,590), 5.1% | 5.4% | DP02 |
| Urban / rural population, 2020 | 69.6% urban, 30.4% rural (539,113 and 235,487) | 73.5% urban, 26.5% rural | 2020 Census, P2; Michigan from DHC P2 |
Income, work, and housing
ACS 2024 1-year| Measure | MI-4 | Michigan | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $73,702 (±$3,100) | $72,389 (±$567) | DP03 |
| Per capita income | $40,001 (±$1,258) | $40,990 | DP03 |
| Poverty rate, all people | 11.4% (±1.1) | 13.4% (±0.3) | DP03 |
| Labor-force participation (16 and older) | 63.8% (±1.0) | 61.6% | DP03 |
| Unemployment rate, survey-based | 3.4% (±0.5) | 4.5% (±0.2) | DP03. This is the ACS's 2024 annual measure, which differs in method from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' monthly rate on the home page. |
| Owner-occupied homes | 74.0% (±1.1) | 73.5% | DP04 |
| Median home value (owner-occupied) | $276,300 (±$5,498) | $254,200 | DP04 |
| Median gross rent | $1,105 (±$43) | $1,168 | DP04 |
What people do for work
By where workers live, not where jobs are| Industry (civilian employed, 16 and older) | MI-4 | Michigan | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| All civilian employed residents | 390,359 (±7,598) | 4,879,201 | DP03 |
| Manufacturing | 81,776 (±5,086), 20.9% | 17.7% (U.S.: 9.6%) | DP03 |
| Health care and social assistance | 49,484 (±3,593), 12.7% | — | S2403 |
| Retail trade | 12.3% (±1.1) | 10.7% | DP03 |
| Arts, recreation, accommodation, and food services | 9.5% (±0.9) | 9.0% | DP03 |
| Agriculture, forestry, fishing, hunting, and mining | 4,841 (±1,192), 1.2% | 1.1% | DP03 |
Manufacturing's share of employed residents is higher than Michigan's and more than twice the national share. The farm-employment share is small, but it understates agriculture's weight: counts by residence miss seasonal and migrant workers, and farm sales are large (next section). County-level manufacturing figures for Allegan and Van Buren are on the Trade & Manufacturing page.
Farms
USDA 2022 Census of AgricultureUSDA publishes a profile for each congressional district. For MI-4 in 2022: 3,246 farms on 537,983 acres, and $1.64 billion in agricultural sales, 13% of Michigan's total and fourth among the state's 13 districts. Crops made up 55% of sales and livestock 45%. The district ranked first in Michigan in nursery, greenhouse, floriculture, and sod sales ($360.3 million, seventh among 424 districts nationally) and in poultry and egg sales ($287.8 million). It ranked second in fruit, tree nut, and berry sales ($169.9 million). Milk sales were $247.9 million and hog sales $130.7 million. About 73,000 acres, 14% of farmland, were irrigated. Source: USDA NASS, 2022 Census of Agriculture Congressional District Profile, Michigan District 4.
USDA doesn't publish crop-by-crop figures such as blueberries or tart cherries by congressional district. The Agriculture page uses statewide figures for those and labels them.
Health coverage
ACS 2024 1-year| Measure | MI-4 | Michigan | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Uninsured | 4.9% (±0.6), about 38,400 people | 5.1% (±0.2) | S2701 |
| Medicaid or other means-tested coverage, alone or in combination | 18.8% (±1.0), about 147,000 people | 22.5% (±0.3) | S2704 |
| Of those, adults 19–64 | about 71,000 | — | C27007. This is an upper bound on people H.R. 1's work requirements can reach. |
| Medicare, alone or in combination | 19.4% (±0.4), about 151,000 people | 21.2% | S2704 |
| Under 65 with direct-purchase coverage | About 60,000 (±4,168) | — | S2703. This includes ACA Marketplace plans but isn't a Marketplace count. |
Not published for the district: Marketplace enrollment, SNAP participation, and a reliable count of hospitals or rural providers. The site doesn't estimate them.
Trade exposure
Statewide onlyNo federal agency publishes exports by congressional district. The closest reliable figures are statewide: Michigan's goods exports to Canada were $23.2 billion in 2025, 39% of the state's $60.3 billion in goods exports, making Canada by far its largest foreign market (U.S. Trade Representative, Michigan trade data). That's a Michigan figure, not an MI-4 figure. The district's exposure shows up indirectly in its manufacturing share (above) and its specialty-crop and nursery sales. The Alliances & Trade and Trade & Manufacturing pages cover the tariffs.
Shoreline and water
GeographyMI-4's Lake Michigan shoreline includes Saugatuck, South Haven, and St. Joseph, and Holland sits on Lake Macatawa, which opens to Lake Michigan. The Census Bureau's relationship file records about 2,386 square miles of land (6.18 billion square meters) and 3.93 billion square meters of water in the district, including its portion of Lake Michigan. Holland and St. Joseph harbors are federal navigation channels, and the Water Resources Development Act of 2024 (P.L. 118-272) authorized Army Corps studies of deepening both and of flood-risk management and ecosystem restoration in the Kalamazoo River watershed. According to Huizenga's office, the Corps' FY2025 work plan funded work at the Holland, Saugatuck, St. Joseph, and South Haven harbors. The site hasn't yet reviewed the district's Great Lakes and infrastructure record in full; see the Open Questions register.
Keeping it canonical
Other pages on this site use these figures rather than pulling their own. Each core value is also recorded in the site's canonical-facts file with its source and retrieval date, and a check before publishing confirms that pages still match it. All figures were retrieved Sept. 25, 2026. When the Census Bureau releases ACS 2025 1-year estimates, every figure here changes together and the update is logged. See Methodology for the sourcing rules.