Detroit's population shows growth for second straight year. Are young people driving it?

Detroit gained 12,487 residents since a May 2024 estimate. Who those residents are won't be clear until demographic data is released later this year.

Downtown Detroit. Photo: Samuel Robinson

New estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau are showing another population increase in the city of Detroit.

There are now 645,705 Detroit residents, according to the new census data.

At a press conference Thursday morning, Mayor Mike Duggan and City Council president Mary Sheffield expressed pride, saying young people are driving the growth in Detroit. Last year, the city celebrated the news of its first population gain in 60 years with social media posts and videos and a press conference.

I wrote at the time the city’s brand was the biggest winner of its population increase.

U.S. Census Bureau data released Thursday shows Detroit gained 12,487 residents since last year’s estimate. The latest data showed a record increase of 6,791 Detroiters in 2024. Plus, the addition of 5,696 Detroiters who the Census Bureau acknowledged had been undercounted from 2021-2023.

Detroit’s population growth rate doubled the State of Michigan’s in 2024 and beat the national average by .1%.

The city passed Portland to become 26th largest city in U.S. and is gaining on Boston.

Census 2023-2024 change in Michigan’s 10 largest cities.

Kurt Metzger, the former director of Data Driven Detroit, who was also at the press conference announcing the statistics Thursday morning, said he expects growth to continue.

“I think we can call it a trend, this trend is just going to continue and get stronger in the years to come,” Metzger said.

Metzger acknowledged getting the census bureau to change their methodology was a major accomplishment. Duggan sued the U.S. Census Bureau in 2023 and 2024.

City attorneys in 2023 argued the Census Bureau considered the demolition of vacant residential structures as evidence of population loss.

Detroit demolished 4,000 houses between 2021-2023, which under the bureau’s methods resulted in a population loss of 8,000 people. However, the city has been adding residents who are living in renovated housing, Duggan argued.

Up until the city’s successful lawsuit, the census bureau would only consider added residents when there was new housing construction.

Duggan thanked the state demographer Jaclyn Butler and Trisha Stein, the city’s chief strategy officer for their work proving the existence of the city’s new residents. Duggan said Stein is the leading municipal expert in America on how the census bureau does annual estimates. You can listen to the mayor explaining the census bureau’s flawed methodology he helped to change below: