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Michigan experienced rapid population growth through migration in the 19th century and then another burst in the 20th century with the rise of the auto industry. The forced removal of Native nations in the 1830s and 1840s cleared the land for redistribution to Whites coming from the East. In 1850, Michigan recorded a population on 397,000 which doubled in the next ten years, doubled again by 1880, and reached 2.4 million by 1900. Many of those coming were from New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, with others crossing the border from Canada. Immigrants from Europe also arrived in significant numbers, especially from Germany followed by England, Ireland, and Sweden. Foreign-born residents accounted for about 17% of the state's population at the turn of the century.
Migration accelerated again after 1910 as the automobile revolution took hold and Detroit became the manufacturing wonder of the world. The state's population jumped by more than a million in the 1910s and again in the 1920s; and the newcomers brought increased diversity. Poles, Italians, Russians and other eastern Europeans were in mix, but the most noticeable change involved Black Americans. Less than 17,000 African Americans made their homes in Michigan in 1900. By 1930 that number had increased almost ten fold as Black southerners found their way to Detroit. Black migration continued during and after World War II, so that by 1970 the African American population of Michigan approached one million. White southerners were also attracted by auto industry jobs and numbered more than 430,000 in 1970.
Along with the rest of the Midwest, Michigan population growth slowed dramatically with the industrial contractions that began in the 1970s. Since 1980, more people leave Michigan than move there. Each census for the past forty years finds at least one quarter of all persons born in Michigan living in another state, especially Florida, California, and Texas.
Notice in the visualization below that the dark blue rectangle representing population born in state grows much larger after 1950 while the light blue migrant origin boxes shrink decade by decade. Switch the race category to Black or Latino to see a very different sequenuence.
Notice in the visualization below that the dark blue rectangle representing population born in state remains smaller than the out-of-state born throughout the 150 year period. This visualization tool is hosted by Tableau Public and may take a few seconds to respond. If slow, refresh the page. Click here for other state migration histories
Note on data issues: Birth state information is missing for about 5% of US-born persons in 1970 and about 2% in 1960. These birthplaces are labeled "United States, ns" in the charts. Birthplaces were not recorded for enslaved persons in the 1850 and 1860 censuses, so it is not until 1870 that reliable data on African Americans became available. Native Americans were not routinely included in decennial censuses until 1900.
Source: U.S. Census data from the Minnesota Population Center's IPUMS USA: Steven Ruggles, Katie Genadek, Ronald Goeken, Josiah Grover, and Matthew Sobek. Integrated Public Use Microdata Series: Version 6.0 [Machine-readable database]. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2015, the following samples: 1850 1%, 1860 1%, 1870 1%, 1880 1% 1900 1%, 1910 1%, 1920 1%, 1930 1%, 1940 1%, 1950 1%, 1960 5%, 1970 1% State FM1, 1980 5% State, 1990 5% State, 2000 1%, 2010 ACS, 2022 ACS.
Maps, data development, calculations: James Gregory.