Detroit sees biggest population growth in Michigan
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After decades of population loss, Detroit is now the Michigan city seeing the biggest growth.
The big picture: Mayor Mike Duggan and other leaders on Thursday attributed the growth to more people moving into neighborhoods outside downtown, new residential developments, crime reductions and the city's entertainment scene, among other things.
- Plus, the U.S. Census Bureau is now accounting for newly occupied renovated older homes in its figures — a win for city leaders who challenged counting methods that they said didn't accurately reflect Detroit's growth.
The latest: Detroit's resident count grew 1.1% in 2024 — beating the U.S. rate of 0.98% — to 645,700, per the latest Census Bureau estimates.
- Detroit's nearly 6,800-person increase is more than triple Grand Rapids' 1,800.
Plus, we passed the size of Portland, Oregon, and became the U.S.'s 26th biggest city, behind Boston.
Between the lines: Detroit challenged the Census Bureau in recent years over its counting methods. Now, the bureau has revised its past population estimates, adding nearly 5,700 residents that the bureau says it undercounted between 2021 and 2023.
- In a press conference Thursday, Duggan attributed the undercount to the bureau including demolitions as population loss, and not counting reoccupied older homes that had previously been vacant but have been scooped up in the city's recent rehab boom.
The intrigue: The third-term mayor staked his success in office on growing the city's population, but then the 2020 Census showed Detroit lost residents.
- Now, after the growth and the Census' revision, Duggan said "we are moving in the right direction."
The bottom line: "Detroit is growing again and I see continued growth in the future," local demographer Kurt Metzger said at the event.