Renaissance

Study Shows Detroit Trails All Big Cities In Attracting Young College Grads

October 20, 2014, 10:34 AM

Despite anecdotal evidence that Detroit has become a popular place for young people, a new study says the city has a long ways to go.

When young college graduates decide where to move, they are not just looking at the usual suspects, like New York, Washington and San Francisco, The New York Times reports. Other cities are increasing their share of these valuable residents at an even higher rate and have reached a high overall percentage, led by Denver, San Diego, Nashville, Salt Lake City and Portland, Ore., according to a report published Monday by City Observatory, a new think tank, The Times says.

According to the story, By Claire Cain Miller, as young people continue to spurn the suburbs for urban living, more of them are moving to the very heart of cities — even in economically troubled places like Buffalo and Cleveland. The number of college-educated people age 25 to 34 living within three miles of city centers has surged, up 37 percent since 2000, even as the total population of these neighborhoods has slightly shrunk.

Some cities are attracting young talent while their overall population falls, like Pittsburgh and New Orleans. And in a reversal, others that used to be magnets, like Atlanta and Charlotte, are struggling to attract them at the same rate.

Yet Detroit, whose revival downtown and in Midtown has been fueled by this very demographic, finishes poorly in the study -- Miller reports all the 51 biggest metros except Detroit have gained young talent, either from net migration to the cities or from residents graduating from college, according to the report. It is based on data from the federal American Community Survey and written by Joe Cortright, an economist who runs City Observatory and Impresa, a consulting firm on regional economies.

At the other end of the spectrum are the cities where less than 4 percent of the population are young college graduates. Among those, Detroit lost about 10 percent of this group, while Providence gained just 6 percent and Memphis 10 percent.


Read more:  New York Times


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