Michigan Census Data Released

The population for the state of Michigan decreased by .5 percent and is now at 9,883,640, according to Census numbers released Tuesday, but some counties have experienced growth since 2000.

Livingston County's population increased by 15 percent, from 157,000 in 2000 to almost 181,000 in 2010. Macomb and Washtenaw counties each saw a boom of almost 7 percent, from 780,000 in 2000 to 841,000 in 2010  and 323,000 in 2000 to 345,000, respectively. And the population of Oakland County saw a slight increase of .7 percent.

Wayne County was hit with a nearly 12 percent decline in residents.

It was a mixed bag for some of the state's largest communities. Rochester Hills and Dearborn saw an increase of 3.2% and .4%, respectively.

Farmington Hills saw a 2.9% decrease in residents since 2000 and St. Clair Shores showed a 5.4% decrease.

The census is released every 10 years as a way to gauge the population across the country. The government uses the data to redraw political boundaries. It is also used to allocate federal dollars.

The change in Wayne County's population was affected in large part by the change in population of the city of Detroit, which fell almost 25 percent since 2000.

"Detroit's population loss is the largest of any city in the past 10 years, excluding New Orleans, which was affected by Hurricane Katrina in 2005," said Lisa Niedert, data services manager at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research Population Studies Center in Ann Arbor.

Come back to Patch for an update.