DETROIT (WWJ) -- Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan says the city is planning to take legal action after 2020 U.S. Census data released Thursday shows Detroit population declined by 10.5% over the last decade, saying the city was undercounted in the latest decennial count.
The U.S. Census Bureau’s data says Detroit only has 254,000 occupied households, but DTE Energy reported there are nearly 280,000 residential households currently paying electric bills.
“At a minimum, the Census somehow failed to count 25,000 occupied houses with running electricity,” Duggan said in a statement Thursday, claiming the bureau undercounted Detroit’s population by at least 10%.
“We will be pursuing our legal remedies to get Detroit an accurate count,” he added.
It was not immediately clear what legal avenues could be pursued in the city’s attempt to bolster the population numbers.
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Detroit’s official population, per the 2020 Census data, is 639,111 -- down about 10.5% from a population of just under 714,000 in 2010. It marks the seventh consecutive decade the city has seen a decline in population, though the decline slowed from a mass exodus of 25% between 2000 and 2010.
Many have called into question the accuracy of the 2020 census data, in large part due to the pandemic hitting the U.S. as counts were being taken, as well as former President Donald Trump’s decision to stop counts a month early.
“This is exactly what Rep. (Rashida) Tlaib and I predicted on October 28th when we were joined by Census workers who shared their stories about how Detroit neighborhoods were being undercounted and were upset that the count was shut down a month before originally planned,” Duggan said.
The U.S. Census is used to determine how many representatives each state will have in Congress for the next 10 years, and how much federal funding communities will receive for roads, schools, and other programs.
Michigan already lost one seat in the House of Representatives earlier this year, as data shows more Americans are moving south and west.
While Michigan saw large amounts of growth on the west side of the state, those numbers were more tapered in metro Detroit. Oakland and Macomb Counties saw 6% and 4.6% rises in population, respectively, while Wayne County’s population decreased by 1.5%.
Ottawa County, along Lake Michigan, was among the counties with the most growth, rising more than 12% to just over 296,000.