Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Economic disparity in metropolitan Detroit is quite pronounced. In the 2000
census, the consolidated metropolitan area, Detroit-Ann Arbor-Flint included
1,575 census tracts. Taken as a whole, Detroit is a relatively prosperous metropolis
with average per capita income equal to 112% of the national average in 1999.
Social disparities, however, are even more pronounced than in Atlanta (see
Figure 8.10). One in 10 people lives in a neighborhood where the average income is
less than $12,800 per capita, while 10% of inhabitants reside in neighborhoods
where the average per capita income is above $35,500, for an inter-decile ratio of
2.8.
Like the Chicago School's first model city (Burgess in Park & Burgess
[PAR 25]) and even more than in Atlanta, Detroit's wealthy suburbs surround an
impoverished city center. In the case of Detroit, the city center accounts for 17% of
the MSA's population, but only 10% of its income, for an average per capita income
which is barely 68% of the national average and only 60% of the metropolitan area
(see Figures 8.9 and 8.11).
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
USA
MSA
Central City
suburbs
Figure 8.11.
Percentage of population living beneath the poverty threshold,
Detroit-Ann Arbor-Flint CMSA, 2000
Similar disparities occur between the city center of Flint, a satellite city 95 km
northwest of Detroit and the suburbs that surround it. This city, with
125,000 inhabitants in 2000 (against 200,000 in 1970), has an average per capita
income equal to 73% of the national average and 65% of the metropolitan area.
