Detroit is one of Michigan's youngest communities with a median age of 30.9. Demographers say the city's large number of single moms with young kids holds down the median age. Harper Woods is getting younger as its African-American population rises. The city's median age dropped to 38.2 in 2000 from 40.6 in 1990 even as its black population rose from under 1 percent to more than 10 percent. Again, Metzger suggested that black families with children moving in lowered the city's overall age.
College towns are among the youngest of all.
East Lansing's was 21.7 years. One likely future result is a boom in retirement centers of all kinds. Bill Frey, a University of Michigan demographer, said aging boomers may divide along economic lines. On the opposite end of the demographic scale, cities with younger populations are still building schools. The Walled Lake school district in Oakland County, which encompasses Wixom with its relatively young median age of 30.3, intends to build another high school in the next decade to accommodate its burgeoning population.