More Data

I hope to make the case that urban blight/white flight was going on long before the riots in 1967 and continues today, even in the suburbs. I don't have all the data yet to make my case. Once I have all the data I may even reach another conclusion, who knows? But that is where I am heading. The German immigrants settled around St. Joseph's, then moved outward with each generation, then finally to the suburbs. And once in the suburbs, people still keep moving outward. Race may have played a role, but that the flight was and is going on even without the racial factor. That is the case I will be collecting data for and trying to make, and where I want to go with this blog.

I have some census data for the City of Detroit from several sources. The first source is the Detroit Free Press's "The Detroit Almanac" and the other source is "A Study of the Foreign-Born Population of Detroit 1870-1950" by Albert Mayer in 1951. These data are interesting to look at and think about. However, keep in mind that the borders of Detroit have changed significantly over the years, so there isn't an apples-to-apples comparison between all years. Also, Detroit's neighborhoods are not homogenous. There are very significant differences in the space of only one block. For instance, my grandfather's old paint factory on Mack Avenue is perhaps the gold standard symbol of urban blight; yet this is located only 1-1/2 short blocks away from the Waldorf Academy in Indian Village, itself perhaps a gold standard symbol of Detroit's affluence. So ideally, we'll need to delve further into census data at the household level over many years, and if household-level data is not available then block-level data.

Sorry, this blog site does not allow me to input a table. So what I'll do is enter data in the following order, separated by a semi-colon in case you want to copy and paste and make it into a table yourself:

Year; Detroit Population; % White Population; % Non-White Population; % of Population that is Foreign White Stock (born outside US or with at least one foreign-born parent); % of Foreign White Stock with German Ancestry; % of Foreign White Stock with Polish Ancestry.

1810; 1,650
1820; 1,442; 95.1%; 4.9%
1830; 2,222; 99.44%; 0.56%
1840; 9,102; 97.9%; 2.1%
1850; 21,019; 97.2%; 2.8%
1860; 45,619; 97%; 3%
1870; 79,577; 97.2%; 2.8%; 44.0%; 35.9%; 0.8%
1880; 116,340; 97.6%; 2.4%; 38.7%; 38.4%; 3.9%
1890; 205,876; 98.3%; 1.7%; 39.3%; 47.9%; 3.4%
1900; 285,704; 98.6%; 1.4%; 33.6%; 39.2%; 13.8%
1910; 465,766; 98.8%; 1.2%; 33.6%; 36.1%; 12.5%
1920; 993,678; 95.9%; 4.1%; 29.1%; 20.8%; 13.9%
1930; 1,568,662; 92.4%; 7.6%; 25.7%; 13.9%; 19.0%
1940; 1,623,452; 90.9%; 9.1%; 19.6%; 11.9%; 19.5%
1950; 1,849,568; 83.9%; 16.1%
1960; 1,670,144; 71.1%; 28.9%
1970; 1,511,482; 55.5%; 44.5%
1980; 1,203,339; 37.0%; 63.0%
1990; 1,027,974; 24.0%; 76.0%
2000; 951,270; 12.3%; 81.6%

Also, from the Detroit Almanac:
% of tri-county population living in Detroit:
1900; 68%
1950; 65%
1990; 25%

% of tri-county white population living in Detroit:
1900; 68%
1950; 58%
1990; 8%

% of tri-county black population living in Detroit:
1900; 86%
1950; 84%
1990; 83%

Total Jobs in Detroit; Tri-County Suburbs
1960; 700,000; 350,000
1990; 350,000; 1,400,000

That's all for today!