First comes love. Then comes marriage. Then comes the baby in the baby carriage.
Can’t speak to love. But the year-end tallies of vital statistics from the county clerk’s office reveal just what happened on the Little Finger in 2024.
The office is charged with recording all things hatched, matched and dispatched — born, married and died.
In 2023, for the first time in recent history, births were the only vital statistic which increased from 2022 to the following in Leelanau County.
Births more than doubled from the nine recorded in 2022 to 20 last year. It is also the largest number of births since before the long-closed Leelanau Memorial Hospital discontinued baby deliveries in 1988. Twenty-two births were recorded in the county in 1987.
September was the most popular month for birthdays with four. Two births were recorded in April, May, June and July.
One live birth per month were recorded in August, October and December.
There were no births recorded in January, February and March was well as November.
Between 2011-2022, the average births in the county numbered 11.75.
Today, the bulk of parents go to Traverse City to deliver their children. The births recorded by the Leelanau County clerk last year were 15.
Persons 65 and older represent about 35% of the county population — a fact that aligns closely with the number of deaths recorded in 2024.
Last year, there were 207 deaths recorded on the peninsula, up from 190 in 2023 but the same as 2022 and 20 less than the record 210 in 2021.
Between 2011 and 2022, the number of deaths in the county averaged 159.
January was the most deadly on the peninsula. That month and October, 21 deaths were recorded; May, 20; November, 19; December and February, 18; March, 17; June 16; and September, 15.
The least deadly months were April, July and August when 14 deaths were recorded.
The beauty of the peninsula attracts couples from all over who choose to say their “I dos” on the Little Finger.
Last year, 222 couples were married in the county, up from 198 in 2022.
August was the busiest months for brides and grooms. Forty-six couples tied the knot.
The following month, 37 couples were married and July was third with 34.
Single-digit tallies were recorded in January, February, April, November, and December.
According to clerk records, nearly half of the marriage licenses issued in 2023 were to out-of-state applicants.
The record number of marriages recorded in 2020 was 238. A low of 94 marriages were recorded in 1992.
Since 2013, there were only three occasions on which marriages dipped before 200. In 2016, 199 were recorded; 198 in 2023 and 196 in 2021.
Fewer couples called it quits in 2024 over the previous year. Forty-seven couples had their marriages dissolved in 2024, down from 50 in 2023 and a little short of the average all time of 35, recorded in 1984. The alltime high for divorces were 51.
