March 23, 1971
Census shows Detroit lost half a million people since 1960
In the wake of the Fermi meltdown, the Motor City is looking a lot emptier than it did a few years ago. People are fleeing the city in droves; even Motown Records is moving out of Motown. [1] The latest census shows a massive drop in population in Detroit, which lost more than 500,000 people since 1960. The city’s population now stands at about 1.1 million. [2] Most of this decrease is thought to have occurred in the last 4 years.
Since the last census in 1960, Wayne County’s population fell by 600,000 people due to the Downriver evacuation and population loss in the City of Detroit, though this was offset somewhat by population gains in Detroit’s western suburbs. Across 8 Mile, the population of Oakland County increased to over 1 million, while Macomb County’s population increased to more than 750,000. [3] However, in Monroe County, the location of the Fermi plant, more than half of its population was lost, falling to just under 40,000 people. [4]
While some of Detroit’s population loss can be attributed on people moving out of the state, much of the loss is the result of the mass exodus of middle-class whites to the suburbs. Fears of crime and radiation, along with the loss of businesses to the suburbs, are believed to have contributed to this departure.