Michigan’s aging trend continued to tick upward in 2025, while its population becomes more racially diverse, according to new figures from the U.S. Census Bureau.
The state’s median age grew from 40.1 years old in 2024 to 40.7 years old in 2025, a small difference. More striking was the change over the last quarter-century: the typical Michiganian is now more than five years older than in 2000.
“The Midwest states have a slightly higher share of baby boomers than some of the southern states,” said Sirisha Uppalapati, regional development forecast supervisor at Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG). “So that’s one reason why Midwest states probably are aging also slightly faster than the U.S.”
An aging population creates challenges like funding shortfalls for senior services and insufficient housing options, as The News reported earlier this year.
The Census Bureau released the 2025 population estimates Thursday, categorized by age and race for U.S. states and counties.
Counties in Metro Detroit tend to be younger than those in the rest of the state, led by Washtenaw County — home to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and its 50,000 students — which has a median age of just 36.3.
But even with a younger population, Metro Detroit counties had some of the steepest increases in median age in the past five years. The age of a typical Washtenaw resident increased nearly 5 percent from 2020 to 2025, second only to Gratiot County’s increase.
The oldest county in the region was St. Clair, where the typical resident is almost 45 years old.
Uppalapati said that birth rates trend lower in Metro Detroit as younger populations delay having children and face economic challenges.
“It can be finding a house or finding a stable job, a job that pays good wages to support childcare,” Uppalapati said. “So it’s many factors that, especially in urban areas, are probably resulting in that lower birth rates because people are putting, you know, away having a family and having children to later years.
In 2020, the state’s children outnumbered its seniors by over 365,000.
As of last year, those 65 and over outnumbered those under 18 by over 13,000.
“That’s just the dynamic of demographics, that you had a big baby boom that has now become that 65 and over, while at the same time you’re having fewer and fewer kids, and Michigan just kind of takes that and drives both of those trends as strongly as they can,” said Kurt Metzger, director emeritus of Data Driven Detroit.
“We’re aging faster than many states and our birth rate is lower than many states.”
Overall, the state’s population increased by 55,000 from 2020 to 2025.
“All the growth in Michigan between 2020 and 2025 is attributable to immigration,” Metzger said. “In other words, we’ve gotten more people from other parts of the country than the rest of the country got from us.”
Only one other age range saw population growth from 2020 to 2025: statewide, Michigan’s 30- to 44-year-old population increased by over 100,000.
“It has to be partially, obviously, people staying around, but we have to be attracting both immigrants and relocators from other parts of the country,” Metzger said.
Hispanic, Asian populations grow fastest
As the six-county metro Detroit area continued to lose both Black and White residents, the area saw double-digit increases in Asian and Hispanic populations in the past five years.
In 2023, the region’s Asian population surpassed its Hispanic population. As of last year, the metro area now has over 10,000 more Asian residents than Hispanic residents.
“The Asian population has really built a strong presence, certainly in Oakland County, with various groups, both in Wayne and Macomb,” Metzger said. “And obviously, that has continued certainly through birth, but also bringing people, maybe from friends and relatives, from other parts of the country as well as immigrants.”
The yearly census estimates don’t reflect one of Metro Detroit’s key populations: Arab Americans.
In 2020, the decennial census considered Middle Eastern and North African under the “White” category, and instructed respondents to write their specific background underneath. Total counts for Arab American populations aren’t available.
“Most parts of the country don’t have a large Middle Eastern population,” Metzger said. “But it was always an issue here.”
The metro area’s Black and White populations have shrunk similarly, with about a 1.5% decrease in each category. Uppalapati said that some of this decrease can be connected to falling birth rates for Black and White residents.
“Our state and region are getting more and more diverse, and some of it obviously is, migration, but much of it is also because… multiple factors are playing into these age dynamics,” Uppalapati said.
lcibulskis@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Metro Detroit grows more diverse as Michigan ages, census data shows
Reporting by Ben Warren and Laine Cibulskis, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Ben Warren and Laine Cibulskis, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
