Detroit Suffers Population Loss Due to Decline in Auto Industry

VOA Breaking News (Voice of America)
March 23, 2011

New census figures show that the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan — for years the hub of the nation's auto industry — has lost 25 percent of its population in the past decade.

City officials attributed the fall in population to the decline of the U.S. auto industry, which led to plant closures and job losses that forced the unemployed to move elsewhere. Demographers say the total is even lower than they expected.

Detroit's population hit its peak at 1.8 million in the 1950s, when the U.S. auto industry was thriving. Now the population stands at 713,000.

Michigan governor Rick Snyder said the numbers show “how crucial it is to reinvent Michigan” in order to strengthen the economy.

The Detroit Free Press newspaper noted that Detroit's population loss over a decade comes close to the 29 percent lost over the same period by the city of New Orleans, where residents were driven away by Hurricane Katrina and massive flooding in 2005.