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How Deep Are Wells in Michigan? Real Depth Data by County

"How deep will my well need to be?" is one of the hardest well-drilling questions to answer in the abstract, because it depends entirely on local geology. Michigan publishes its driller's completion reports as open data, so instead of a national average, here is what 198,146 actual residential wells drilled since 2011 report for depth, broken down by county.

Source and method: Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) Wellogic statewide water-well database (Michigan GIS Open Data), extracted 2026-07-14. Figures include only wells recorded as residential (domestic) use, completed 2011 or later, with a reported depth between 15 and 2,000 ft (to exclude likely data-entry errors). A county is shown only if it has at least 5 qualifying reports. The depth shown is the reported total well depth. EGLE notes Wellogic is not a complete record of every well in the state (well inclusion before 2000 varies by county) and the driller-submitted reports are not independently verified. These are figures self-reported by licensed drillers to the state; neither the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) nor this site independently verifies them. Treat this as a planning reference, not a guarantee for any specific property, your own site could sit well outside your county's typical range.

Median well depth by county

"Typical range" is the 10th-to-90th-percentile band, i.e. where 80% of reported wells in that county fell. Counties with fewer than 5 qualifying reports since 2011 are omitted rather than shown with a misleading precise figure.

County Median depth Typical range (10th-90th pct) Reports used
Alcona 78 ft 39-160 ft 1,376
Alger 83 ft 48-162 ft 502
Allegan 86 ft 44-162 ft 7,667
Alpena 102 ft 42-225 ft 720
Antrim 102 ft 47-214 ft 2,095
Arenac 80 ft 43-220 ft 872
Baraga 159 ft 44-249 ft 241
Barry 80 ft 40-202 ft 4,362
Bay 178 ft 100-300 ft 744
Benzie 90 ft 42-197 ft 1,644
Berrien 100 ft 59-175 ft 4,768
Branch 59 ft 38-103 ft 2,099
Calhoun 98 ft 54-160 ft 2,623
Cass 85 ft 47-145 ft 3,953
Charlevoix 106 ft 48-240 ft 1,465
Cheboygan 116 ft 63-229 ft 1,671
Chippewa 115 ft 53-250 ft 1,434
Clare 90 ft 50-160 ft 3,818
Clinton 220 ft 122-280 ft 1,601
Crawford 95 ft 40-182 ft 1,289
Delta 155 ft 52-400 ft 884
Dickinson 115 ft 45-300 ft 500
Eaton 120 ft 67-235 ft 1,508
Emmet 143 ft 65-314 ft 1,629
Genesee 178 ft 63-240 ft 7,287
Gladwin 96 ft 50-257 ft 3,559
Gogebic 98 ft 42-243 ft 422
Grand Traverse 120 ft 53-246 ft 4,140
Gratiot 111 ft 60-284 ft 1,304
Hillsdale 85 ft 48-145 ft 1,893
Houghton 136 ft 54-253 ft 899
Huron 140 ft 70-240 ft 768
Ingham 160 ft 93-290 ft 1,633
Ionia 109 ft 52-220 ft 1,995
Iosco 78 ft 42-231 ft 1,609
Iron 83 ft 40-300 ft 392
Isabella 93 ft 49-165 ft 3,188
Jackson 110 ft 60-180 ft 3,652
Kalamazoo 86 ft 43-153 ft 4,220
Kalkaska 85 ft 50-170 ft 1,823
Kent 100 ft 50-192 ft 9,235
Keweenaw 182 ft 53-300 ft 209
Lake 76 ft 45-160 ft 1,822
Lapeer 180 ft 72-260 ft 3,859
Leelanau 124 ft 45-288 ft 2,563
Lenawee 95 ft 55-160 ft 2,817
Livingston 86 ft 51-151 ft 6,665
Luce 82 ft 42-142 ft 337
Mackinac 120 ft 49-264 ft 775
Macomb 75 ft 37-150 ft 1,982
Manistee 92 ft 45-190 ft 1,834
Marquette 78 ft 40-280 ft 1,334
Mason 75 ft 45-143 ft 2,053
Mecosta 82 ft 45-160 ft 2,876
Menominee 105 ft 40-248 ft 702
Midland 98 ft 48-312 ft 1,597
Missaukee 92 ft 45-205 ft 1,590
Monroe 100 ft 65-140 ft 1,388
Montcalm 80 ft 48-146 ft 4,422
Montmorency 71 ft 47-170 ft 1,117
Muskegon 53 ft 31-115 ft 3,910
Newaygo 81 ft 45-168 ft 4,040
Oakland 90 ft 50-170 ft 10,680
Oceana 75 ft 38-170 ft 2,398
Ogemaw 79 ft 46-160 ft 2,405
Ontonagon 104 ft 55-235 ft 252
Osceola 105 ft 52-185 ft 1,796
Oscoda 103 ft 52-221 ft 1,137
Otsego 100 ft 48-185 ft 1,808
Ottawa 95 ft 35-200 ft 5,041
Presque Isle 155 ft 89-277 ft 756
Roscommon 89 ft 54-176 ft 3,292
Saginaw 120 ft 61-220 ft 1,614
Sanilac 111 ft 42-200 ft 953
Schoolcraft 93 ft 50-182 ft 515
Shiawassee 135 ft 49-230 ft 1,691
St. Clair 104 ft 52-160 ft 2,051
St. Joseph 69 ft 40-125 ft 3,016
Tuscola 160 ft 78-245 ft 1,724
Van Buren 83 ft 53-135 ft 4,694
Washtenaw 98 ft 57-181 ft 5,008
Wayne 97 ft 62-180 ft 186
Wexford 117 ft 55-208 ft 1,753

How to use this table

Find your county, then use the median and typical-range figures as a starting point when budgeting with the well drilling cost estimator or reading the cost guide. A driller working in your county day-to-day will still know more about your specific property than a county-wide figure can, ask them how your site compares to the county's typical range, and why, before you commit to a per-foot quote with no depth ceiling.

We build these tables state by state from each state's public completion-report data. See also our Texas well depth by county page.

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