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Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is an upper Midwest naturalist haven just North of Wisconsin. It’s one-third of Michigan’s landmass with a population of just over 300,000. Here you’ll find a culture of rock hunting, flannels, craft beer, and quaint farm to table communities paired with vibrant downtowns, innovative university programs, and plenty of freshly caught whitefish. The U.P. is a place where you clock out at 5 and are in the woods at 5:05. You can read more about our favorite place on Earth here.

Marquette is the largest city in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, located on the shores of Lake Superior and at the foothills of the Huron Mountains. The city is a major port, known historically for shipping iron ore. Over the last decade, Marquette has gained traction as a hub for outdoor recreation in the Midwest through organizations like the Noquemanon Trail Network and Travel Marquette. Marquette is the home of Northern Michigan University, which is leading the state in programs like cybersecurity and medicinal plant medicine.

Marquette, Michigan is located on the Southern shores of Lake Superior in Michigan’s north-central Upper Peninsula. It’s a few hours from the Wisconsin border, the Keweenaw Peninsula, and the Canadian border.

Marquette is considered one of the best places to live in Michigan. Living in Marquette offers residents a dense suburban feel through a variety of artisan shops, art culture, breweries, restaurants, farm to table lifestyle, bars and parks. In addition to being a university town, many young professionals and millennials live in Marquette. Read more here.

If you’re looking to see the Northern Lights in the Midwest the northern Upper Peninsula is your best bet. Copper Harbor, Marquette, and Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore are ideal with near-total dark areas nearby. Read more here.

Northern Michigan University is in Marquette, Michigan. Other universities and colleges in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula include Michigan Technological University, Lake Superior State University, Finlandia University, Bay de Noc Community College, and Gogebic Community College.

Marquette has an overall crime rate of 14 per 1,000 residents, making the crime rate here near the average for all cities and towns of all sizes in America. According to our analysis of FBI crime data, your chance of becoming a victim of crime in Marquette is 1 in 72. Read more here.

Finding a job in Marquette and the greater Upper Peninsula region is like many other locations around the country, LinkedIn, Indeed, and Zip Recruiter are great places to start, but think of them as “at a glance”. In a true Yooper fashion we like to have a few websites and events meant for job search that are specialized to the region. Innovate Marquette holds a yearly professional careers fair called Return North to connect job seekers with companies in Marquette and the Upper Peninsula who are hiring. WorkLiveUP, UP Michigan Works!, and Manpower Group are other great resources to reference for specific cities and counties.

You can surely scour the typical Zillow, Realtor, or Facebook groups to see homes on the market, but in Marquette County, the real estate market is very competitive. Your best resource for diving into real estate is to contact a local Realtor. View our list of neighborhoods in the city of Marquette here.

Marquette, MI averages 129 inches of snow per year. You can view more Michigan snowfall averages here.

There are many beautiful places to live in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula depending on your ideal way of life. If you have your heart set on the Southern shores of Lake Superior and are craving a downtown feel Marquette County or Houghton in the Keweenaw Peninsula may suite you. If you’d prefer the warmer water and cozy cedar forests of Northern Lake Michigan, then consider Escanaba or Manistique. And then we have the Canadian border city of Sault Ste Marie, home of the Soo Locks and Lake Superior State University.

Merriam Webster dictionary states a “Yooper” pronounces /ˈyo͞opər/ is a native or inhabitant of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The term is so widely used by Michganders that you’ll commonly see it in a game of Scrabble. But, true Yoopers know we are far more than a simple definition. Click here to read more.

People from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan are obsessed with pasties, and once you’ve had one you’ll know why. The pasty (rhymes with “nasty”) is a traditional workingman’s meal from Cornwall, England. It’s traditionally made with beef, diced potatoes, onion, and rutabaga, although the proportions and type of meat change depending on who’s making it. Read more on how the pasty became the Upper Peninsula’s signature food here.

One of the traits long time residents of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula are known for, especially those waaaay up north, is something called a “Yooper Accent”. The distinct accent in which one can hear the use of “yah” instead of “yeah”, replacing “th” with “d”, and the injection of the Canadian “eh” at the end of many sentences is influenced by the area’s Scandinavian and German influence as well as its proximity to Canada. Is it one of the sexiest accents around? Eh, we’ll let you decide. For more information on this regional dialect click here.

First things first, any location below the infamous Mackinaw Bridge is considered “lower Michigan”. Any location above the bridge is considered “upper Michigan”. From Mackinaw City to Detroit, Traverse City to Grand Rapids, and Alpena to Ann Arbor, those of us with a residence in the Upper Peninsula consider others a “troll”, AKA as living under the bridge.