Demographic Profile of Senior in Wayne County, Michigan

A further analysis of the county’s racial/ethnic makeup (see Table 5) details the
composition of the county’s minority population. Just under 93 percent of Wayne
County’s minority elderly population is African-American. 3 Asians represented 2.5
percent of the minority elderly, while Native Americans and Other (undefined) races
accounted for less than 1 percent each. Multi-racial responses (primarily attributable to
seniors of Arab descent) accounted for 3.2 percent. While not included in the count of
minorities, 5,379 elderly (1.7 percent) identified themselves as Latino/Hispanic.
The racial/ethnic composition of the elderly differs from that of the general population.
The racial/ethic composition of the elderly population tends to be more White, non-
Hispanic – 62 vs. 50 percent, and trails in all minority categories. In spite of the large
decrease in White, non-Hispanic elderly in Detroit (a trend not experienced out-county)
over the last decade (just over 50 percent 4 ), the White share of Detroit’s elderly
population (19 percent – 24,400 out of 128,400) was almost double its representation in
the total population (10.5 percent – 99,921 out of 951,270).
Table 5. Racial Distribution of Wayne County’s Total and 60+ Populations, 2000
Total Population 60+ Population % of County
Number Percent Number Percent Minority
Total Population 2,061,162 319,085
Minority Population 995,555 48.3 118,041 37.0 100.0
African-American 868,992 42.2 109,175 34.2 92.5
Native American 7,627 0.4 776 0.2 0.7
Asian & PI 35,647 1.7 2,913 0.9 2.5
Other Race 32,020 1.6 1,428 0.4 1.2
Multi-Race 51,269 2.5 3,749 1.2 3.2
Latino/Hispanic 77,207 3.7 5,379 1.7 4.6
White, non-Hispanic 1,028,984 49.9 197,671 61.9
While research shows that the sample ancestry question used in the 2000 Census results
in underreporting of specific ethnic groups, the results that it does provide help to “get a
handle” on the size and geographic distribution of various ethnic groups. Table 6 shows
that 3,718 of Wayne County residents who identified themselves as having Arab ancestry
were 60 years of age or older. This represented 37 percent of Michigan’s 60+ Arab
population, a share considerably smaller than Wayne County’s 48.4 percent share of the
total Arab population. While the vast majority resided in the cities of Dearborn and
Dearborn Heights, increasing numbers were also found in Detroit and Hamtramck.
While not considered a minority by the standards of the Office of Services to the Aging,
3 Race identification in Table 5 is associated with single race responses. In other words, the count of
African-Americans is based on the number of respondents who listed only African-American on their
census questionnaire. If they listed African-American and another race they were counted as Multi-racial.
4 Additional research, not included in this document, revealed that 56,572 Detroit residents 60 years and
over identified their race as White, non-Hispanic in 1990. By 2000, that number had dropped to 24,400.
This represented a loss of 32,172 or 57 percent.
Demographic Summary for Wayne County 5