Excitement came to Michigan, at least in some parts, in late 2012 when the Census Bureau proclaimed that Michigan’s population had increased over the previous year for the first time in seven years. Our total population was up to 9,883,360, but we knew little of its characteristics. We could surmise that we were getting older, […]
Data Driven Detroit
Posted inBusiness Watch
New reports ID five housing ‘hot spots’ in Michigan
Michigan’s housing stock is thinning, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, which pegged the state as one of only two with fewer housing units in 2012 than in 2010. Neighboring Illinois is the other. But the state of housing is far from equal across Michigan. In fact, there are growing hot spots for housing – […]
Posted inQuality of Life
New century brings change to Michigan’s gender competition
CLICK TO ENLARGE On gender, the statistics always have been clear. More male babies are born than female babies – about 104 or 105 males per 100 females, in fact. Women, though have their own advantage: longer lifespans. At age 65, there are 108 females per 100 males; by age 80, the ratio is 143 […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
Death trend stalks Northern Michigan
Kurt Metzger is director of Data Driven Detroit, a nonprofit in Detroit established by foundations to build greater capacity for people to work together, and improve lives and communities affiliated with the Michigan Nonprofit Association. He was research director for United Way for Southeastern Michigan from 2005 to 2008 and before that, was a director […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
Michigan economy grew again in 2012, but pace was well off ’10,’11 rates
Kurt Metzger is director of Data Driven Detroit, a nonprofit in Detroit established by foundations to build greater capacity for people to work together, and improve lives and communities affiliated with the Michigan Nonprofit Association. He was research director for United Way for Southeastern Michigan from 2005 to 2008 and before that, was a director […]
Posted inQuality of Life
Census alert: Michigan needs babies!
Remember the lousy movie “Mars Needs Women,” the 1967 cult classic in which Tommy Kirk leads his fellow Martians to Earth on an interplanetary quest for females? Well, Michigan has the women (though maybe not so many in their child-bearing years). The state really needs babies – and the women who want to have them. […]
Posted inQuality of Life
Demographic trends improving in Michigan, but need to bolster education remains
The end-of-year reports on 2012 are coming in at a quick clip now – and the news appears to be consistently positive. Michigan’s jobless rate came in at 8.9 percent for 2012 and the state experienced its second straight year of job growth. (The 2009 rate was 13.4 percent.) Total nonfarm employment rose by 47,300 […]
Posted inQuality of Life
Report details surge in child poverty in Detroit
The majority of children in Detroit now live in poverty, says a new report from the demographic firm Data Driven Detroit. The child poverty rate was 57.3 percent in 2011, D3 found in “2012 State of the Detroit Child”, after a decade of huge increases in economic struggles for children in Michigan’s largest city. “The […]
Posted inGuest Commentary
Guest column: Science ed in Detroit has too high a price
By Kurt Metzger/Data Driven Detroit Detroit area businessman and philanthropist Dexter Ferry founded the Detroit Science Center in 1970. In 1978, the DSC moved to its current facility in Midtown at the corner of John R and Warren, adjacent to the Detroit Institute of Arts and Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. The […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
Another income report is out, and the news is not so good for Michigan
Last time, I reported on the good news coming out of the latest Census Bureau report: median household income increased and poverty decreased for Michigan between 2010 and 2011. These data points were based on the results of the Current Population Survey (CPS) Annual Social and Income Supplement, conducted in March of each year. We […]
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