Duggan’s Battle Against Census Bureau Ends with Detroit’s First Population Growth Since 1957

Few stories are as dramatic and hard-fought as those of Detroit under the tenacious leadership of Mayor Mike Duggan. At the Detroit Policy Conference earlier this year, Duggan’s impassioned plea was clear: get the U.S. Census Bureau to properly reflect the city’s population growth. Today, that plea has been met with triumph. For the first time since 1957, the Census Bureau acknowledges that Detroit’s population is on the rise, a milestone that resonates beyond mere numbers. Detroit, once the beating heart of America’s industrial might, saw its population dwindle over the decades, reaching a low point that many feared was irreversible. The U.S. Census Bureau’s data painted a grim picture: a decline from nearly 2 million residents in 1950 to just over 631,000 in 2022. But these numbers didn’t tell the whole story. Duggan’s administration was adamant that the Census Bureau’s figures were not only inaccurate but damaging to the city’s revival efforts. Duggan didn’t just challenge the Census Bureau; he went to war with it, describing the agency as a “national clown show” for its erroneous reporting. The city filed multiple lawsuits, asserting that the Census Bureau’s methodology unfairly penalized Detroit for its demolition of unoccupied and uninhabitable structures....