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Detroit QLINE tracks near Little Caesars Arena, Detroit Michigan by Bluediamond616 – Wikimedia Commons
10 Alarming Facts about Detroit’s poverty rate
Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 census, making it the 27th-most populous city in the United States. The metropolitan area, known as Metro Detroit, is home to 4.3 million people, making it the second-largest in the Midwest after the Chicago metropolitan area, and the 14th-largest in the United States.
Detroit has been going through an economic decline for many years, in part due to urban decay, in which young, educated people move away from the city for better options. Detroit is also one of the poorest major cities in the United States, and poverty is a real problem. The federal government defines poverty in terms of household income. The measure is based on the estimated cost of food for a particular household type, multiplied by three. No other household budget line items are taken into account in the definition. The measure is used across the continental United States with no variation allowing for geographic differences in the cost of living. This definition has not changed for decades.
Let’s delve into the 10 alarming facts about Detroit’s poverty rate.
1. 41% of Detroit residents live below the federal poverty threshold
In Detroit’s metro area and the rest of the state, 17% of people live at or below the federal poverty threshold. Within Detroit, there are census tracts with unusually high poverty rates: on the city’s east side, a neighborhood near the Chrysler-Jefferson North Assembly Plant has a family poverty rate of 83%
Along Detroit’s eastside border with upscale Grosse Pointe Park, one tract has 72% of families living in poverty. On the city’s west side, the Brightmoor neighborhood has a section where two-thirds of families exist with household income below the federal poverty threshold.
2. 48% of Detroit households are food insecure and another 40% rely on food stamps
People gathered in a street – Wikimedia Commons
These statistics are according to the Detroit Food Policy Council. Food Banks are the primary entities that collect food and distribute it to the appropriate organizations that are responsible for directly distributing food to the people.
These food banks and food pantries can help stop poverty, but more importantly how they can be a tool to help those who may already be impoverished sustain themselves long enough to potentially pull themselves out of the poverty situation.
One solution for people in Detroit who are struggling has been to reach out to food banks and food pantries. Each person is given 30 pounds of food including produce and milk.
3. Detroit Public School’s set up a food distribution that provides 18,000 meals to children each week
Many of the schools in Detroit face extremely high percentages of students living in poverty, a factor that can directly impact their ability to learn.
Hence the food distribution that happens across 57 locations and due to the pandemic, increased funding provided food for not only families but also students.
4. Of every three Detroit residents, one lives in poverty
Pallister Park and the Fisher Building in Detroit, Michigan by Michael Barera – Wikimedia Commons
Detroit is now known as one of the poorest big cities in the country. The loss of industrial and working-class jobs in the city has resulted in high rates of poverty and associated problems. From 2000 to 2009, the city’s estimated median household income fell from $29,526 to $26,098. As of 2010, the mean income of Detroit is below the overall U.S. average by several thousand dollars. Of every three Detroit residents, one lives in poverty.
5. Oakland County in Metro Detroit dropped in the top 25 listing of Forbes magazine
Oakland County is a county in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is part of the metropolitan Detroit area, located northwest of the city. In 2010, Oakland County was among the ten wealthiest counties in the United States to have over one million residents. However, it is no longer shown in the top 25 listings of Forbes magazine. Forbes published eight times a year, features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics.
However, internal county statistical methods based on measuring per capita income for counties with more than one million residents show Oakland is still within the top 12, slipping from the fourth-most affluent such county in the U.S. in 2004 to the 11th-most affluent in 2009.
Read more about the 10 safest neighborhoods to live in in Detroit.
6. Detroit has been going through an economic decline for many years, due to urban decay
Pallister Street in Detroit, Michigan by Michael Barera – Wikimedia Commons
In 1950, Detroit was the 4th largest city in the country, but its population has been in decline for the past 60 years with the second-largest population decline in the country. Because of this decline, Detroit now has a large number of abandoned buildings and homes and the area is dealing with urban decay.
In this regard, young, educated people move away from the city for better options. Other causes of Detroit’s decline include segregation, politics, and, the collapse of the auto industry, which the city has relied on for many years.
7. Detroit greatly suffered economically as a result of the collapse of its automobile industry
Beginning with the rise of the automobile industry, Detroit’s population increased more than sixfold during the first half of the 20th century as an influx of European, Middle Eastern, and Southern migrants brought their families to the city.
However, between 1947 and 1963, the city lost over 140,000 manufacturing jobs. In the next decade, Japanese car imports took up a greater share of the United States market, which took even more jobs from the region. Unfortunately, Detroit became dependent on a single industry automobiles and the city’s population dropped by over 40% from 1970 to 2006.
Get to know more sensational facts about the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant in Detroit.
8. Detroit is the city with the highest concentrated poverty rate in the United States
Downtown Detroit, Michigan from Windsor, Ontario by Ken Lund – Wikimedia Commons
Detroit is the city with the highest concentrated poverty rate among the top 25 Metropolitan areas in the country. The income deficit is the difference in dollars between family income and the family’s poverty threshold.
According to the Census Bureau, the mean income deficit for the city of Detroit is currently $7,220. This indicates that the average amount of income received by a poor family in Detroit is $7,220 less than the poverty threshold amount in a 12-month period. This suggests a large number of Detroiters are living well below the federal poverty level.
9. Abandoned buildings and high household vacancies turned several Detroit neighborhoods into ghost towns
Over the past 60 years, Detroit has gone through a traumatic experience of unprecedented urban shrinkage. The story of economic decline, caused by rapid industrial decentralization, has been repeated in other cities around the U.S. as well. However, none have experienced the depth and breadth of abandonment of residential and commercial buildings seen in Detroit over the last six decades.
The lack of public transit and the ease of the automobile further incentivized populations to live farther from the downtown in the surrounding suburbs. The combination of these planning factors along with the structural shift in the automotive industry created a perfect storm and contributed to the dramatic shrinkage of Detroit well into the twenty-first century.
10. Detroit city owes creditors $18 billion, and its bankruptcy case was approved in 2014
Detroit is a comeback city. Yet, still remain the poorest large city in the United States. Detroit’s revenues do not match its expenses, and it’s dealing with a rapidly declining population and thus lower tax revenues.
According to the US Census Bureau, Detroit’s population decline is finally slowing, which means its 25% drop over the last ten years may have bottomed out. This doesn’t say the slump is over, however, or that the city is rebounding. It’s currently estimated that Detroit’s population will fall to just 610,000 people by 2030. This should help to maneuver the city through a significant monetary crisis without creating greater economic harm by accruing further debt or foregoing other essential needs.
