The metropolitan area surrounding and including Detroit, Michigan, is a ten-county area with a population of over 5.9 million, a workforce of 2.6 million, and about 347,000 businesses.[1]
Detroit's six-county Metropolitan Statistical Area has a population of about 4.3 million, a workforce of about 2.1 million,[2] and a gross metropolitan product of $200.9 billion.[3] Detroit's urban area has a population of 3.9 million. A 2005 PricewaterhouseCoopers study estimated that Detroit's urban area had a gross domestic product of $203 billion.[4]
About 180,500 people work in downtown Detroit, comprising one-fifth of the city's employment base.[5][6]Metro Detroit has propelled Michigan's national ranking in emerging technology fields such as life sciences, information technology, and advanced manufacturing; Michigan ranks fourth in the U.S. in high tech employment with 568,000 high tech workers, which includes 70,000 in the automotive industry.[7] Michigan typically ranks third or fourth in overall research and development expenditures in the United States.[8][9] Metro Detroit is the second-largest source of architectural and engineering job opportunities in the U.S.[10] Detroit is known as the automobile capital of the world,[11] with the domestic auto industry primarily headquartered in Metro Detroit.[12] As of 2003, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers claimed that new vehicle production, sales, and jobs related to automobile use account for one of every ten jobs in the United States.[13]
In April 2008, metropolitan Detroit's unemployment rate was 6.9 percent; in November 2012, it was 7.9 percent.[2][14] Economic issues include the city of Detroit's unemployment rate at 15.8 percent in April 2012.[2] The suburbs typically have low unemployment. The metropolitan economy began an economic recovery in 2010.[15]
^Henion, Andy (03-22-2007). City puts transit idea in motion. The Detroit News. (About 80,500 people work in downtown which is 21% of the city's employment base). Retrieved on May 14, 2007.
^The Urban Markets Initiative, Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program The Social Compact, Inc. University of Michigan Graduate Real Estate Program (October 2006).Downtown Detroit In Focus: A Profile of Market OpportunityArchived September 18, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Downtown Detroit Partnership. Retrieved on September 18, 2010.
^Cite error: The named reference Anderson was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^"Michigan Cities". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Archived from the original on September 19, 2010. Retrieved June 17, 2009. [Detroit] is the automobile capital of the world