DETROIT – New census data shows the exodus from Detroit continuing -- the city losing 6% of its population. The number of people living in Wayne County also decreased.
In a statement, Wayne County Executive Warren Evans is still calling it a win for the county where the rate of people leaving slowed in the past 10 years.
Read: 2020 Census data and map: Michigan population change by county since 2010
“The rate of decline is a marked improvement from a decade ago. There is much work that needs to be done, especially for residents who have yet to share in the region’s resurgence,” Evans said.
Counties around Detroit are growing -- some of the fastest in Michigan. Oakland County is up 6%, Livingston County with a 7% increase and Washtenaw County up by 8%.
Experts said the moves come from families moving out from more densely populated urban areas to suburban neighborhoods with parks and schools. While young professionals continue to move to cities like Detroit, it has not been enough to stop people leaving -- city losing population for the last 70 years.
Michigan overall is becoming less White and Black. Both sets of the population is decreasing while the number of Hispanic Michiganders is on the rise. Those changes also mean changes surrounding metro counties, which are still predominantly White but saw an increase in diversity along with population.
Read: How the census data could change Michigan’s political landscape
Census shows US is diversifying, white population shrinking
The U.S. became more diverse and more urban over the past decade, and the non-Hispanic white population dropped for the first time on record, the Census Bureau reported Thursday as it released a trove of demographic data that will be used to redraw the nation’s political maps.
The new figures offered the most detailed portrait yet of how the country has changed since 2010, and they are sure to set off an intense partisan battle over representation at a time of deep national division and fights over voting rights. The numbers could help determine control of the House in the 2022 elections and provide an electoral edge for years to come. The data will also shape how $1.5 trillion in annual federal spending is distributed.
Americans continued to migrate to the South and West at the expense of the Midwest and Northeast, the figures showed. The share of the white population fell from 63.7% in 2010 to 57.8% in 2020, the lowest on record, driven by falling birthrates among white women compared with Hispanic and Asian women. The number of non-Hispanic white people shrank from 196 million in 2010 to 191 million.