Detroit, Wayne Co. still losing population

[313WX]

I have little doubt that Detroit's ~resident~ population is considerably larger than its census population for two primary reasons - 1-lack of counting of the homeless, semi-homeless, transients and 2- lack of count of "bunking" residents, my guess is young people who live in Detroit but can't afford car insurance so they list there residences as mom and dad's.

Additionally I would suspect that a good share of the new green zone residential units are pied-a-terre's, downtown bunking 'cabins' where the residents keep their primary residence and voter registrations in the burbs.

The census should have some way to compensate for this, particularly for state revenue sharing calculations.

Mayor Duggan ran on the promise that he would grow Detroit's population. If it doesn't, as is likely, look for him to point to the above arguments.

Agreed on all points. And it's not just young people who are bunkers, but also older and established Detroit residents [[including homeowners) who use their relatives' addresses in the suburbs. I know of a couple folks myself who fall into this category.

But really, in today's age, the size of a city proper isn't everything. Detroit also has to complete with cities that are 500 - 600 miles square wide due to county mergers despite having metro populations not even half Detroit's size [[Indianapolis, Columbus, Nashville, etc.), so comparing ourselves to them strictly based on population just isn't fair.