February 19, 2019
Detroit Future City (DFC) is proud to introduce “Growing Detroit’s African-American Middle Class: The Opportunity for a Prosperous Detroit,” a comprehensive data report supporting attraction, retention and growth strategies to restore a demographic that once defined our city and many cities across America.
“Growing Detroit’s African-American Middle Class: The Opportunity for a Prosperous Detroit” stems from the 2017 release of our “139 Square Miles” data report on Detroit, which identified that 75 percent of Detroiters have household incomes of less than $50,000. As Detroit continues to experience a revitalization, this report provides a benchmark and makes clear recommendations through which we can focus on the African-American middle class to spur and measure equitable growth.
In this report, we focus on the people, place and economy in Detroit and the region. Leading with an ambitious goal, we state that it will take 33,800 middle-class households, of all races, in Detroit to bring the city’s share of middle class in line with that of the region.
To ensure that Detroit is growing equitably, it is important that the share of middle-class African Americans is brought in line with that of the region, as well. That would require an increase of 27,700 African-American middle-class households in Detroit. We also outline a set of recommendations to advance that goal to guide us toward emphasizing growing attracting and retaining Detroit’s African-American middle class.
It is our hope that policy-makers and others use “Growing Detroit’s African-American Middle Class: The Opportunity for a Prosperous Detroit” as a guide to set deliberate strategies in order to achieve the goals laid out in the report. We hope you will use this report as a resource and share it to aid us in this effort.
To view and share the digital version of this report, please click here. Please feel free to contact DFC if you have any questions or would like more information.