Demographic Profile of Senior in Wayne County, Michigan

Total Population Trends
Populations shifts within the State of Michigan in general, and within the inner core of
the Detroit metropolitan area specifically, have resulted in a steady decline in Wayne
County’s share of state seniors over the last 30 years (Table 1). While the county
contained one of every three (33 percent) Michigan seniors in 1970, only one of five (20
percent) resided there as of 2000. This pattern did not occur uniformly throughout the
county however. While Detroit and its core communities of Highland Park and
Hamtramck 1 experienced losses over the three decades, rapidly growing communities in
the suburbs of Wayne County (Livonia, Canton Township, etc.) led to increases in
Region 1-C’s share in 1980 and 1990. The majority of available land was developed in
many of these rapidly growing areas by 1990. Less land for development resulted in
fewer new households and allowed the demographic trend of decreasing household size
to lead to decreased rates of growth or, in some cases, population loss. This trend,
combined with the continued decrease in Region 1-A, resulted in a four-percentage point
drop for the county.
Table 1. Share of State’s 60+ Population, 1970 - 2000
While general population trends in the state would predict such a shift, the 1990’s
brought a variation in the region’s trend that is both disturbing and, unfortunately, not
fully understandable. The rate of loss for seniors trailed that of the general population
during the 1970s and 1980s. In fact, the number of seniors in Wayne County actually
increased during the 1980s while the overall population was dropping by 10 percent. In
the 1990s, however, a large variance occurred. While the rate of loss for the general
population slowed to a quarter that of the 1980’s (2.4 vs. 9.7 percent), the 1.4 percent
gain in seniors that occurred during the 1980s turned to an 11.4 percent loss during the
1990s, outdistancing general loss almost five-fold (Table 2).
Table 2. Trends in Total and Elderly Population in Wayne County, 1970 – 2000
Year
Region 1970 1980 1990 2000
Wayne County 33.0 27.2 23.9 20.0
1-A 24.9 17.2 12.7 9.3
1-C 8.2 10.0 11.2 10.7
Population Totals, by Decade
Percent Change, Decade to Decade
Michigan Wayne County Michigan Wayne County
Total 60+ Total 60+ Total 60+ Total 60+
1970 8,875,083 1,089,225 2,666,751 359,954
1980 9,262,078 1,305,636 2,337,891 355,224 4.4% 19.9% -12.3% -1.3%
1990 9,295,297 1,510,397 2,111,687 360,304 0.4% 15.7% -9.7% 1.4%
2000 9,938,444 1,596,162 2,061,162 319,085 6.9% 5.7% -2.4% -11.4%
1 While Hamtramck’s population losses continued through 1990, the large immigration wave of the 1990s
led to a population turnaround and a resultant population increase of 25 percent between 1990 and 2000.
While Detroit experienced an increase in its immigrant population, it was not enough to reverse the
population losses that began during the 1950s.
Demographic Summary for Wayne County 3