Census Report: Wayne County Population Losses Mean Gains in Oakland and Macomb

Continued population losses create a headache for Wayne County officials, who are trying to cure longstanding budget deficits with a shrinking population base. (Photo via Creative Commons)

» Get Patch’s daily newsletter and news alerts.

Wayne County again led the nation in population loss last year, while neighboring Oakland and Macomb counties saw combined population gains that exceeded Wayne’s loss of 10,899 residents, a 0.6 percent decline, according to new U.S. Census Bureau estimates.

There was a sliver of good news for Michigan’s most populous county in the report, which estimated population changes between July 1, 2013 and July 1, 2014.

The exodus, which amounted to about 30 people per day, was smaller than in 2013, when 17,067 people left the county. The 2013 decline represented a 1 percent decline in the county’s population.

The next largest decline belonged to Cuyahoga, OH, where Cleveland is located, at slightly more than 4,000 people.

Kurt Metzger, director emeritus of the nonprofit data analysis group Data Driven Detroit, told the Detroit Free Press that Wayne County has led the nation in population loss every year since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. In 2005, Orleans Parish, where New Orleans is located, led the nation in population decline.

The downward trend is bedeviling for Wayne County officials as they attempt to cure long-running budget deficits with a shrinking taxpayer base, which also reduces the county’s competitiveness for population-based state and federal grants.

Though Wayne County led the nation in the number of people leaving, some other counties lost a greater percent of their populations, according to the report.

Oakland County grew by 6,048 people, or 0.5 percent, and Macomb County gained 5,115 people, a 0.6 percent increase.

“Migration trends are the biggest piece of this puzzle,” Metzger told the Free Press. “They are moving to St. Clair Shores and places like that. Basically that whole southern tier of Macomb has changed dramatically and that continues.”

Though Thursday’s report reflects only population trends in counties, Metzger said the majority of those exiting Wayne County – 55,000 people since 2010 – are Detroiters.

Elsewhere in southeast Michigan, Genesee County lost 2,728 residents, a 0.7 percent decline; Livingston County gained 1,204 residents, a 0.7 percent increase; and Washtenaw County gained 2,456 residents, a 0.7 percent.

The state’s population increased by 11,684 residents or 1 percent, for a total estimated population of 9,909,877. See how other Michigan counties ranked here.