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(The Center Square) – Michigan’s population fell by more than 43,000 residents between 2020 and 2022, according to U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2022 estimates released Thursday.
That population numeric decline includes the loss over two years of 36,506 Wayne County residents. In 2020, the census estimated Wayne County was home to 1,793,549 people, which fell to 1,773,073 in 2021, and again decreased to 1,757,043 in 2022. Those declines rank the county seventh overall in the nation for resident population loss.
James Hohman, director of Fiscal Policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, told The Center Square Michigan’s most recent population losses are analogous to similar population declines in the state during the 2000s.
“Michigan lost 612,148 people to other states in the 2000s, with losses the entire decade and accelerating as the state got closer to the Great Recession,” he said. “Only Louisiana and New York lost a greater share of their population during the decade.”
Hohman said one of the likely causes of people leaving the state is jobs and economic policies.
Data in the report shows population growth in the nation’s largest counties rebounded in 2022, with notable exceptions being Cook County in Illinois and Los Angeles County in California.
Chris Douglas, professor of economics and chairman of the Department of Social Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, at the University of Michigan-Flint, said the numeric decline in Wayne County is attributable in part to crime and corporate subsidies granted by the state to businesses in Wayne County and its largest city, Detroit.
“The economic giveaways, most recently the $616 million given to the developers of ‘District Detroit’ benefits the special interests who receive the breaks, but not the ordinary citizen,” Douglas told The Center Square.
“When state subsidies were given for Little Caesars arena, it was promised that development in the form of hotels, office buildings, and residential buildings would follow,” Douglas continued. “Now, even more subsidies have to be given to make this development a reality. Over $1 billion in subsidies given for Little Caesars arena and District Detroit.”
Douglas said the subsidies with the promises of creating high-paying jobs may grab headlines for politicians, but seldom benefit a county’s population at large. The crime rate in Detroit is higher than 99.9% of other cities, Douglas said, citing city-data.com.
Michigan’s total numeric decline during the two-year period between 2020 and 2022 was 43,212 residents.
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This article First appeared in the center square
