'Special day': Detroit hits population growth milestone, beats all other Michigan cities
City's population now above 645,000
A "historic turnaround" — that's how officials in Detroit are describing new data showing the city's population grew for the second year in a row after more than a half-century of decline.
Detroit's population jumped by roughly 12,500 people compared to last year, according to data released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Thursday.
"It is a special day," Mayor Mike Duggan said. "For the first time since the 1950s, the mayor of Detroit can say that the city of Detroit is leading the population growth in the state of Michigan."
The statistical milestone is further evidence of the midwestern city's comeback following decades of population flight and a historic 2013 bankruptcy that made it a symbol of America's industrial downturn.
"To see the city of Detroit coming back the way it has is remarkable," said Duggan, who was first elected in the fallout of the municipal bankruptcy and pledged to reverse the population loss.
It also comes as Windsor, a Canadian manufacturing hub that sits only a handful of kilometres from Detroit's now-thriving downtown, sees similar population growth but struggles to revitalize its own core.
Two factors drove the increase across the border: A "record increase of 6,791 Detroiters in 2024 alone," per a city press release, as well as 5,696 residents "who the Census Bureau acknowledged had been undercounted from 2021-2023."
The correction was the result of a years-long legal battle between the city of Detroit and Census Bureau, which the city said was underestimating the population by thousands due to "discriminatory" methodology.
That methodology counted the demolition of abandoned homes against the city's population, but didn't consider the restoration of some older homes as an increase.
"They've changed their entire methodology based on what we've been able to show them," said Kurt Metzger, who has been studying Detroit's population for 50 years.
"So older cities will now get some benefit from that, I think across the country with the older housing stock," he said.
Metzger, a former Census Bureau employee who founded the non-profit group Data Driven Detroit, said the work the city did to get the bureau to change its methods was "unprecedented.
"I don't think it's ever been done," he said. "Certainly there have been adjustments over the decades in the intercensal counts, but not this kind of methodological change and significant change in how they're looking at Detroit's housing stock."
Now, the city said, Detroit has moved up to the country's 26th biggest city, surpassing Portland, Oregon, and closing the gap with Boston, Mass.
The press release said the "key factors" in the city's "surging growth" have been improved neighbourhoods, better city services, new job centres, crime reduction, "as well as a world class sports and entertainment district and international waterfront."
Metzger said he believes "a lot of young people" and young families are those who have been moving into the city. He said there have been concerns about gentrification and displacement of the city's historically large Black communities as well.
"If you look at any city across the country, as cities redevelop, they become whiter because whites have the money," he said. Institutional racism in the U.S. has hurt the Black population in terms of asset building, he added.
"So whites have had the opportunity, they have the opportunity to move into the city and spend that kind of money. So there's always that push-pull," he said.
But in Detroit, "it's broader than just whites," he said. "You're seeing the Asian community to some extent, you're seeing Latino community, more of a middle class population coming into the city, which is exactly what the city needs to build the tax base and continue to grow."
Detroit's population peaked at 1.8 million in the 1950s, but white flight to the suburbs, racial unrest, and a contracting automotive industry slashed it to below 700,000 more recently.
The current population, 645,705, is still lower than when Duggan first took office in early 2014.
But the bleeding seems to have stopped, and Metzger says he thinks the feds are still undercounting.
"I'm just happy to see that the number's going up instead of down," he said. "I've seen them go down since I moved to Detroit in '75, so it's been a long road."
He and the mayor said they expect the upward trend to continue, too.
"I've always said that Detroit, even though it was a city of 1.8 million at one time, could be a very successful city at around 700,000," Metzger said, adding that it could hit that number by the 2030 census.
Duggan said the city is seeing both construction of new housing units and the renovation of older properties. "There is no reason that this trend is not going to continue," he said. "I think you're going to see the city of Detroit lead the state of Michigan for quite a ways to come."
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With files from Dalson Chen