Portage, Michigan
15 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1922 and the latest in 1982. It stands in Portage City. It lies in ZIP code area 49002. The Survey maps it on the Portage quadrangle. 48,891 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 879 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresPortage grew from 46,292 to 48,891 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 46,292 | |
| 2020 | 48,891 | +2,599 (+6%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 15 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1922 USGS Schoolcraft quadrangle1:62500, 5 printings
- 1943 USGS Schoolcraft quadrangle1:62500
- 1958 USGS Grand Rapids quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1961 USGS Grand Rapids quadrangle1:250000
- 1962 USGS Grand Rapids quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1967 USGS Portage quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1982 USGS Kalamazoo quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
31 since 2018Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 31 fires within 5 miles of Portage between 2018 and 2020, burning about 31 acres in total. 1 started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 24 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 5 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 1 |
| Natural | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 September 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | PORTAGE FD 0004039 - 2018 |
| 2 August 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | COMSTOCK TWP FIRE/RESCUE 0001310 - 2019 |
| 2 August 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | KALAMAZOO DPS 0006279 - 2019 |
| 12 August 2019 | Recreation and ceremony | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | PAVILION TOWNSHIP FD 0000273 - 2019 |
| 6 July 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | KALAMAZOO DPS 0054887 - 2018 |
| 30 July 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | PORTAGE FD 0002877 - 2019 |
| 28 July 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | PORTAGE FD 0003242 - 2018 |
| 13 July 2018 | Natural | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | PAVILION TOWNSHIP FD 0000238 - 2018 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
12 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Portage in 12 storm reports between 1997 and 2019: 8 thunderstorm wind, 4 hail. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Portage | $250,000 | no account filed |
| July 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Portage | $50,000 | Many trees were blown down in Portage and Kalamazoo. |
| May 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Portage | $25,000 | Several power poles and trees were blown down. |
| August 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Portage | $10,000 | A 69 m.p.h. wind gust was recorded in Portage. |
| June 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Portage | $10,000 | no account filed |
| June 2006 | Hail | Portage | $5,000 | Three quarters inch hail was reported three miles south of Portage. |
| June 2006 | Hail | Portage | $5,000 | Three quarters inch hail was reported in Portage. |
| July 2004 | Hail | Portage | $5,000 | The broadcast media reported a severe thunderstorm produced three quarters inch diameter hail two miles southeast of Portage. |
| May 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Portage | $1,000 | Kalamazoo HAM radio personnel reported six inch diameter trees were blown down in Portage. |
| June 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Portage | $500 | A tree was downed in Portage at 12:45 am EDT, Friday, June 26th. |
| October 2007 | Hail | Portage | - | no account filed |
| July 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Portage | - | no account filed |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ramona Park | 2.2 miles | 15 | |
| Milwood | 4.1 miles | 20 | |
| Oakwood | 4.4 miles | 20 | |
| Pavillion Center | 5.2 miles | 14 | |
| Collins Corner | 5.2 miles | 14 | |
| Pomeroy | 5.2 miles | 14 | |
| Lemon Park | 5.5 miles | 14 | |
| Texas Corners | 5.7 miles | 15 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Portage | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1022946 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 635269. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.






