More people died in Michigan in 2020 than were born, according to state records, the first time that has happened since at least 1900.
Michigan isn’t the first state where that’s happened, and it won’t be the last. The national birth has been falling for years. But experts say that if Michigan can’t start bringing in more immigrants and attracting residents from other states the way that places like Texas, Colorado and North Carolina have, it could spell serious problems for the economic future of the state.
Preliminary data from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services shows 104,166 people were born in 2020 while 117,087 people died. COVID drove those death numbers up from years prior, when around 99,000 people died in the state each year, but even without the pandemic, demography experts say the state was likely to hit that point in the next few years.
“This is not a shock. We’ve been talking about this coming for some time now,” said Kurt Metzger, demographer and director emeritus of Data Driven Detroit. “We’re at a point we have to do something about it.”