Estimated Population for States: 2000-2007

Tables 
   Estimated Population by State: 2000-2007 
   Estimated Population of Michigan: 1900-2007
Additional tables for all states are available from the population estimates page of the U.S. Census Bureau website.

Summary of New Estimates of Michigan Population 

Estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau indicate that Michigan's population has decreased by 30,500 from 2006 to 2007.  Michigan remains the nation's eighth-largest state with a population of 10,071,822.

According to the new estimates, Michigan had the nation's third-highest rate of net domestic out-migration in 2007, surpassed only by New York and Rhode Island.  Michigan has the nation's seventh-highest rate for the entire period since the 2000 Census, surpassed by New York, the District of Columbia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Illinois.  Michigan's total net migration is also up from previous years, but it remains much lower than in the early 1980's.  [See chart:Total Net Migration: Michigan, 1960-2007 ]

Michigan had 3.34 percent of the nation's estimated population in 2007, which is down from 3.38 percent in 2006 and 3.53 percent in the 2000 Census.

Michigan's share of the nation's population for 2007 is lower than in 2006 because of significant population loss through migration.  Other factors contributing to lower growth in Michigan than the U.S. as a whole include a lower birth rate, a lower rate of immigration from other countries, and a larger number of military personnel who are stationed in other states.

The new estimates reflect several methodological changes as well. These changes raised Michigan's population for 2006 by 0.1 percent while reducing the the nation's figure by 0.2 percent.  The methodological changes include:

- Decreasing the estimates of immigration into the U.S. from abroad.  This reduces Michigan's estimated population, but it actually increases its share of the national population because Michigan receives only a small proportion of the nation's immigrants.

- Increasing Michigan's estimated 2006 population by over 45,000 due to a challenge to last year's figures by the city of Detroit.   This raises Michigan's total population and increases its rate of population gain from 2000 through 2006.  However, it does not affect the size of Michigan's estimated loss from 2006 to 2007.

- Measuring domestic migration by matching individual exemptions on federal income tax returns for successive years, rather than matching tax returns for only the principal filer.  This increases the number of college students, military personnel, and people who leave their family home for other reasons who are identified as migrants.  This decreases Michigan's share of the nation's population, since Michigan does not have large military bases and since its private universities attract fewer students from other states than private universities elsewhere attract from Michigan.

- Correcting a problem in the procedure for reconciling state birth and death statistics with national totals.

Updated December 27, 2007