How do you quantify a year? Turns out there are lots of ways. To celebrate the final day of 2021, The Ticker asked a wide range of local businesses, organizations, and leaders to share some of their most surprising or “eye-popping” numbers from the past 365 days. From birth and deaths to real estate to rainfall, here’s what we learned.

County Statistics
These numbers were shared by Grand Traverse County Clerk Bonnie Scheele. Unless otherwise noted, data is as of December 17.

1,811: The number of babies born in the county this year. That figure was on pace to exceed last year’s figure (1,826) as well as the two years before that (1,795 in 2018 and 1,790 in 2019).

1,684: Deaths tracked by the county clerk. That’s markedly higher than last year (1,544), which was already 12 percent up from 2019 (1,358). In fact, this year marks the highest number of deaths ever recorded in Grand Traverse County in a single year (county data goes back to 1960). Before 2020 and COVID, the record year was 2018, which saw 1,405 deaths. For reference the Grand Traverse County Health Department COVID-19 dashboard indicates the county has documented 175 COVID deaths since the start of the pandemic.

648: Marriage licenses issued in Grand Traverse County. That’s up from 539 last year – perhaps a product of some couples postponing their 2020 wedding plans to 2021.

263: Divorce filings, as of November 30. While national trends have shown that “interest in divorces skyrocketed 34 percent” during the pandemic, Grand Traverse County appears to be bucking the trend. 2020’s number (269) was way down from 2019’s (386), and was the lowest count of divorces for a single year dating back to 1978 (264). Every year between saw 300 divorces or more.

City of Traverse City numbers
The following statistics were provided to The Ticker by City Clerk Benjamin Marentette.

13,383: The number of individual financial disbursements approved by the city treasurer and the city clerk this year, totaling $123.5 million. Those numbers don’t even include the “review and approval of biweekly payroll,” which totaled $16.886 million for 2021.

$32 million: The city’s 2021 spending on public infrastructure upgrades and maintenance.

9,959: The number of digital pages included in city commission packets for this year's 40 commission meetings. Marentette notes that, until 2019, the city used paper-based packets for commission meetings. If printed, this year’s  packets “would have equated to 89 feet of paper, or one ton of paper.”

1,861: Trees planted by the city this year.

3,118: Calls for service to the Traverse City Fire Department in 2021.

20.37: Miles of sidewalk improvements within city limits since 2016.

Education and school athletics
15 hours and 33 minutes: The approximate duration of public comment periods at Traverse City Area Public Schools (TCAPS) meetings in 2021. The longest meeting, on June 14, lasted six hours and featured two public comment sessions, totaling nearly three hours. The board was discussing its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) resolution at that meeting.

1,257,000: Meals distributed this year through the TCAPS Food Service.

3,500: Number of students to participate in the TCAPS Hour of Code program.

3: The number of northern Michigan runners who competed at the Eastbay Cross Country National Championship race, held in San Diego earlier this month. That race draws just 80 standout high school runners – 40 girls and 40 boys – from across the entire U.S. The local students who qualified – Luke Venhuizen and Julia Flynn from Traverse City Central High School, as well as Hunter Jones from Benzie Central High – all set school records in cross country this year, with times of 15:03, 16:53, and 14:44, respectively, for the standard five-kilometer race distance (3.1 miles).

649: Points scored by the Traverse City Central football team in 2021, en route to the school’s first state finals appearance in 33 years. That’s the highest scoring season in Trojan football history. Leading the team was Notre Dame-bound linebacker/quarterback Josh Burnham, who ranked as the No. 67 overall player in America, the No. 5 linebacker, and the No. 2 prospect coming out of Michigan. Burnham won multiple major statewide awards this season, including MLive’s Michigan High School Football Player of the Year, Gatorade’s Michigan Football Player of the Year, and State Champs! Sports Network’s Michigan Anvil Award. He was also one of six finalists for the Butkus Award, a national honor that recognizes the top high school linebacker in the country.

Local business and tourism
6: The peak wait time, in weeks, for a reservation at The Cooks’ House this summer. According to Chef-Owner Eric Patterson, the restaurant made up for a “terrible” start to the year with historically busy spring, summer, and fall seasons. 

2,000: Athletes who competed in the IRONMAN 70.3 Michigan race in Frankfort this September. Add that number to the nearly 900 volunteers involved in the race, and the triathlon’s crowd was more than double Frankfort’s year-round population of 1,288.

7,653: Wine flights sold at Rove Estate – up from just 1,145 in 2019. McKenzie Gallagher, the winery’s owner, says Rove saw 25 percent more tasting room visits this year compared to 2020.

60,884: Golf rounds played at Grand Traverse Resort and Spa. According to Public Relations Manager Caroline Rizzo, it’s the first time the Resort has ever broken the 60,000 mark in a year. A lengthy golf season – March 20 through November 19 – helped ensure the record numbers. For comparison, 2019 – which Rizzo calls “a more typical season” – saw “just over 47,000 rounds of golf.” The banner season occurred despite the Resort actually seeing a slight dip in occupancy during Fiscal Year 2021 (October 1, 2020 through September 30, 2021) compared to the same period the year before: 67,500 room nights, down from 68,500 for FY 2020.

Real Estate
The Ticker touched based with local real estate agent Mike Annelin, of Century 21 Northland, to get his numbers for 2021. Here’s what he shared:

Most offers on a single house: 13, all at or above asking price.

Highest sale price: $2.2 million

Biggest difference between asking price and sale price: $450,000 over asking price

Weather
15: The number of “Top 10” rankings the National Weather Service observed for Traverse City temperatures and precipitation this year. Those rankings indicate exceptionally warm, cold, wet, or dry weather patterns in the region – both for individual months and full seasons – based on decades of weather data. Key takeaways include the wettest and fourth warmest summer in Traverse City history; the fourth warmest spring; the fifth warmest fall; and the rainiest July on record. Over the summer, Traverse City got 16.12 inches of rain, compared to the seasonal norm of 8.89 inches.