Detroit, Michigan January 24, 2013 -The outmigration that resulted in Detroit's 25 percent population loss between 2000 and 2010 was driven, to a large degree, by families with children. In spite of that loss, children still accounted for 194,347 of Detroit's residents, or 27 percent of the city's total population. The 2012 State of Detroit's Child report tells their story.
Consisting of five major sections: Demographic Overview; Family Economic Security; Early Childhood Development; K-12 Education; and Health and Safety, the second annual State of Detroit's Child (SDC) report provides an extensive overview of the conditions of Detroit's children, utilizing the most recent data available. The Skillman Foundation asked Data Driven Detroit (D3) to produce the 2012 report in order to provide essential information for policy-makers, educators, child advocates, and community stakeholders in the region.
The report documents the 9.2 percent decrease in the number of births to teen mothers, and the increase of 11.5 percent in the number of mothers who sought and received appropriate prenatal care. Births to mothers who did not smoke during their most recent pregnancy also increased dramatically. Another positive outcome was the decreasing rate of children testing positive for elevated blood lead levels, down more than 75 percent across all age group between 2001 and 2010.
According to Kurt Metzger, Director of Data Driven Detroit (D3), "Data Driven Detroit was created to work across sectors and organizations in Detroit and the region to develop the data that can serve to inform collaborative efforts toward measureable outcomes. The 2012 State of Detroit's Child report is designed to serve as a catalyst for any and all who are dedicated to improving the lives of Detroit's children. The data are consistently reported at the city level in order to allow D3 to cover a wide range of issues and sources. Our goal is that these data allow selected issues to create community momentum that will result in collective efforts necessitating more detailed analyses and strategies."
The large increase in the share of children living in poverty was the real story of the last decade. Nearly 60 percent (57.3 percent) of Detroit children were living in poverty in 2011. This represents a 64.7 percent increase in child poverty since 1999, eliminating all gains that were made during the decade of the 1990s, and exceeding the high rates reached in the recession of the early 1980s. The poverty rate was highest, 62.7 percent, for children under the age of five.
The report also contains a section dedicated entirely to education. With the emergence of charter schools, schools of choice and the new school district, the Education Achievement Authority, enrollment in Detroit Public Schools dropped from 80.4 to 45.7 percent of all Detroit school-age children in a little more than ten years. According to the most recent data, 2 of every 5 Detroit school-age children attend a charter school.
According to Carol Goss of the Skillman Foundation in her introduction to the report, "...we place tremendous value on having reliable, timely data to inform our decisions and drive our changemaking efforts....D3 has once again created an excellent tool for us to glean valuable information about the state of our city's youth. We rely on this report, and we think others invested in the city's future should too."
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