Detroit suffers 25% loss, population lowest in 100 years

By John Wisely and Todd Spangler, USA TODAY
Updated 45m ago |

Detroit's population plunged 25% in the past decade to 713,777, the lowest count since 1910, four years before Henry Ford offered $5 a day to autoworkers, sparking a boom that quadrupled Detroit's size in the first half of the 20th Century.

File photo by Spencer Platt, Getty Images

The Motor City's 237,493-resident decline helped make Michigan the only state to experience a net population loss since 2000.
EnlargeCloseFile photo by Spencer Platt, Getty Images

The Motor City's 237,493-resident decline helped make Michigan the only state to experience a net population loss since 2000.

2010 Census figures released Tuesday show the city lost, on average, one resident every 22 minutes between 2001 and 2010.

"My reaction to the Detroit figure was just wow," said demographer Kurt Metzger, director of Data Drive Detroit, a non-profit data research firm. "I was shocked it was as low as it was."

Metzger said a bad economy drove many people out, but so did falling home prices in the suburbs, which are now within reach of many lower income Detroiters. Other issues such as schools, safety and insurance and tax rates, which are higher in Detroit than in the suburbs, also fueled the move.

MICHIGAN: Local county, city data
CENSUS NUMBERS: Interactive map shows your state, county, locality

"They have chosen to vote with their feet," Metzger said.

Detroit experienced a bigger numerical population drop in the 1970s when it lost 310,695 residents, but that was a smaller percentage loss at about 20%.

The Detroit City Council pledged to challenge the figures, saying tens of thousands of residents were likely missed in the count.

"There was a lack of participation" from residents, Councilman James Tate said. "We see apathy setting in with a lot of folks."

Detroit, once America's fourth most populous city, dropped from 10th in 2000 to 18th, below Midwestern neighbors like Columbus, Ohio and Indianapolis. as well as southern cities such as Jacksonville, Charlotte, and Austin and Fort Worth.

Fueled by the implosion of the domestic auto industry, the Motor City's 237,493-resident decline helped make Michigan the only state to experience a net population loss since 2000. Overall, the state's population fell by about 54,000 people, a 0.6% decline at a time when the nation's population grew about 9.7%.

One Michigander to move out was John Bessette, 44, who grew up in suburban Detroit and moved to an exurb of Pittsburgh in August 2010 after commuting there for almost two years. His company, Aim Construction, builds medical facilities and wanted to be where that field was growing.

"With the economy, even before the bad times, everybody was tightening up their purse strings," in Detroit he said. "It was really a good time to go look at somewhere else."

Detroit isn't the only city in the region to lose residents. Chicago, Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Cincinnati also logged their smallest headcounts in at least 100 years. Milwaukee and Toledo are at their lowest levels since 1940.

But on a percentage basis, Detroit's loss was most acute in the region. Detroit lost 25%, Cleveland lost 17% and Cincinnati lost 10%, according to Census figures.

Detroit's percentage loss rivals the 29% drop in New Orleans, which was decimated by Hurricane Katrina. Detroit's numerical loss was larger than New Orleans, which lost 139,834.

Other parts of Michigan fared better.

The seven counties surrounding Grand Rapids grew by 6.2% and the northwest part of the state's lower peninsula around Traverse City grew 5.8%.

Wisely and Spangler also report for the Detroit Free Press

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