Where are all the Yoopers going?
Since 2010, 14 of the 15 counties in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula have lost population. One of every eight people who lived in Ontonagon County in 2010 are now gone. Check out how your county’s population trend compares.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau
LUCE COUNTY – The calls from his sister are the hardest.
“She lives in Mobile, Alabama,” said Dave Frohriep. “She’s putting pictures on Facebook all the time of them out playing in the sand, and out fishing, and their house is beautiful and they’re always going out to dinner, going out to movies.
“They have the life we used to have.”
Dave, 40 and his wife Sherri Frohriep, 46, live in rural Luce County in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. They’ve been unemployed for more than a year. Their electricity was turned off for a few weeks this summer.
“We used to be able to say, let’s go to a movie, and not worry about whether we had the money for it,” Dave Frohriep said. “Now we’re the lowest we’ve ever been, it just feels like it’s going to get worse.”
With no jobs for them and few opportunities for their teen-aged children, the Frohrieps are thinking of leaving Michigan.
“Michigan has definitely been left behind,” Dave Frohriep said. “I think we can make a better life somewhere else.”