Census estimates: Detroit population rises after decades of decline, South still dominates US growth

DETROIT (AP) — America’s Northeast and Midwest cities are rebounding slightly from years of population drops — especially Detroit, which grew for the first time in decades — though the South still dominates the nation’s growth, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates released Thursday.

Detroit, Michigan’s largest city, had seen an exodus of people since the 1950s. Yet the estimates released Thursday show the population of Michigan’s largest city rose by just 1,852 people from 631,366 in 2022 to 633,218 last year.

It’s a milestone for Detroit, which had 1.8 million residents in the 1950s only to see its population dwindle and then plummet through suburban white flight, a 1967 race riot, the migration to the suburbs by many of the Black middle class and the national economic downturn that foreshadowed the city’s 2013 bankruptcy filing.

“It’s a great day. It’s a day we’ve been waiting for for 10 years,” Mayor Mike Duggan told The Associated Press. “The city of Detroit has joined the communities in America that are growing in population according to the Census Bureau. For our national brand, it was critically important for the Census Bureau to certify us as growing.”

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