Southfield is a city in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. An inner-ring suburb of Detroit, Southfield lies roughly northwest of downtown Detroit. The city had a population of 76,618 at the 2020 census.
Southfield home to multiple business districts, including the Southfield City Centre (an edge city which contains the tallest building in Detroit's suburbs) and the area surrounding the former Northland Center shopping mall. It is also home to Lawrence Technological University. The city was originally part of Southfield Township before incorporating in 1958. The autonomous city of Lathrup Village is an enclave within Southfield.
Southfield is also a historic center of Mid-century modern architecture in Michigan, with many examples being found across the city.
History Southfield was surveyed in 1817 according to the plan by Michigan territorial governor Lewis Cass. The first settlers came from nearby Birmingham and Royal Oak, Michigan, as well as New York and Vermont. The area that became Southfield was settled by John Daniels in 1823. Among the founders were the Heth, Stephens, Harmon, McClelland and Thompson families.
Town 1 north, 10 east was first organized as Ossewa Township on July 12, 1830, but the name was changed to Southfield Township 17 days later. The township took its name from its location in the "south fields" of Bloomfield Township. A US post office was established in 1833 and the first town hall built in 1873.
The Southfield Fire Department was formed on April 6, 1942, and the Southfield Police Department in 1953. In the 1950s, cities and villages began to incorporate within the township, including Lathrup Village in 1950, and Beverly Hills in 1957. Most of what was left of the township was formally incorporated as a city on April 28, 1958, to protect it from annexation attempts by the municipalities within it and especially by adjacent Detroit; whites who had migrated to the suburbs did not want to be associated with Detroit's expanding black community.Sugrue, T. (1996). The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
City Hall was built in 1964 as part of the new Civic Center complex, which also became home to Southfield's police headquarters. The Civic Center was expanded in 1971 to include a sports arena with swimming pool. Evergreen Hills Golf Course was added in 1972, and in 1978, a new public safety building, the Southfield Pavilion, and a new court building were added. In 2003, an expanded and redesigned Southfield Public Library opened to the public on the Civic Center grounds, featuring state-of-the-art facilities. Outside the Civic Center complex, Southfield has municipal parks and recreation facilities, largely developed in the 1970s, including Beech Woods Recreation Center and John Grace Community Center.
Duns Scotus College is now the home of Word of Faith Christian Center. In 2016, the site was the center of local controversy over a proposed oil drilling site. Due to sustained opposition and environmental concerns, the plan was cancelled.
Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of , of which is land and (0.04%) is water.
The main branch of the River Rouge runs through Southfield. The city is bounded to the south by Eight Mile Road, its western border is Inkster Road, and to the east it is bounded by Greenfield Road. Southfield's northern border does not follow a single road, but lies approximately along Thirteen Mile Road. The city is bordered by Detroit and Redford Township to the south, Farmington Hills to the west, Franklin, Bingham Farms, and Beverly Hills to the north and Royal Oak, Berkley and Oak Park to the east. The separate city of Lathrup Village sits as an enclave in the eastern part of the city, completely surrounded by Southfield.
Demographics
Racial and ethnic composition +Southfield city, Michigan – Racial and ethnic compositionRace / Ethnicity (NH = Non-Hispanic)Pop 2000Pop 2010Pop 2020% 2000% 2010% 2020White alone (NH)30,02517,53716,12638.35%24.45%21.05%Black or African American alone (NH)42.25950,18153,71353.97%69.95%70.10%Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH)1471351320.19%0.19%0.17%Asian alone (NH)2,4041,2171,7903.07%1.70%2.34%Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander alone (NH)2416330.03%0.02%0.04%Other race alone (NH)3091545350.39%0.21%0.70%Mixed race or Multiracial (NH)2,1941,5422,5802.80%2.15%3.37%Hispanic or Latino (any race)9349571,7091.19%1.33%2.23%Total78.29671,73976,618100.00%100.00%100.00%
2020 census As of the 2020 census, Southfield had a population of 76,618. The median age was 44.0 years. 17.3% of residents were under the age of 18 and 22.4% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 80.3 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 76.7 males age 18 and over.
100.0% of residents lived in urban areas, while 0.0% lived in rural areas.
There were 34,911 households in Southfield, of which 21.6% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 29.0% were married-couple households, 21.8% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 44.3% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 40.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 18.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
There were 37,650 housing units, of which 7.3% were vacant. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.4% and the rental vacancy rate was 8.5%.
+ Racial composition as of the 2020 census Race Number Percent White 16,389 21.4% Black or African American 53,984 70.5% American Indian and Alaska Native 154 0.2% Asian 1,810 2.4% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 35 0.0% Some other race 999 1.3% Two or more races 3,247 4.2%
2010 census As of the census of 2010, there were 71,739 people, 31,778 households, and 18,178 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 35,986 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 70.3% African American, 24.9% White, 0.2% Native American, 1.7% Asian, 0.4% from other races, and 2.4% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.3% of the population.
There were 31,778 households, of which 26.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 33.5% were married couples living together, 19.4% had a female householder with no husband present, 4.4% had a male householder with no wife present, and 42.8% were non-families. 37.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 13.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.22 and the average family size was 2.96.
The median age in the city was 42. 20.5% of residents were under the age of 18; 8.5% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 24.7% were from 25 to 44; 29.2% were from 45 to 64; and 16.9% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 44.7% male and 55.3% female.
2000 census As of the census of 2000, there were 78,296 people, 33,987 households, and 19,780 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 35,698 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 54.22% African American, 38.83% White, 3.09% Asian, 0.20% Native American, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 0.64% from other races, and 2.99% from two or more races. 1.19% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
Of the city's 33,987 households, 25.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 40.2% were married couples living together, 14.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 41.8% were non-families. 36.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.27 and the average family size was 3.01.
The age distribution in the city's population was spread out, with 21.6% under the age of 18, 7.9% from 18 to 24, 30.6% from 25 to 44, 24.8% from 45 to 64, and 15.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38. For every 100 females there were 84.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 80.9 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $51,802, and the median income for a family was $64,543. Males had a median income of $48,341 versus $37,949 for females. The per capita income for the city was $28,096. About 5.8% of families and 7.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 8.2% of those under age 18 and 10.2% of those age 65 or over.
Socioeconomic status The most common occupations for people in Southfield are a mix of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Southfield is a city of sales and office workers, professionals and managers. A relatively large number of people living in Southfield work in office and administrative support (16.00%), sales jobs (10.93%), and management occupations (9.72%). Southfield's populace is very well-educated relative to most cities and towns in the nation. Whereas 21.84% of the average community's adult population holds a 4-year degree or higher, 38.73% of Southfield's adults have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree. Southfield's per capita income in 2010 was $28,995.Williams, Corey. "'Neighborhood profile'.
Ethnic groups
In 2002 Southfield had 42,259 black people, the second-largest black population in Metro Detroit and third-largest in Michigan.Metzger, Kurt and Jason Booza. "African Americans in the United States, Michigan and Metropolitan Detroit ." (Archive) Center for Urban Studies, Wayne State University. February 2002. Working Paper Series, No. 8. p. 8. Retrieved on November 9, 2013. As of 2011, many African Americans from Detroit were moving into Southfield and other suburbs of Oakland and Macomb counties. Tensions have occurred between existing middle-class blacks in Southfield and incoming Detroiters.Dawsey, Darrell. "Housing crisis in metro Detroit creating black class tensions in Southfield." MLive.com. February 28, 2011. Retrieved on February 18, 2014.
As of 2001 many Chaldo-Assyrians live in Southfield; they are descended from the ancient Nineveh region of the Assyrian homeland in North Iraq. The Chaldean Federation of America, an umbrella organization for most regional Chaldean groups, is in Southfield. As of that year, the largest Chaldean church, by number of congregants, was based here. The city also had the area's sole Chaldean retirement home.Smith, Natalie Jill. "Ethnicity, Reciprocity, Reputation and Punishment: An Ethnoexperimental Study of Cooperation among the Chaldeans and Hmong of Detroit (Michigan)" (PhD dissertation). University of California, Los Angeles, 2001. p. 41. UMI Number: 3024065. Southfield is also home to the Detroit area's Consulate-General of Iraq.
Since the rapid suburbanization of the 1950s and 1960s, many Jewish Americans from Northwest Detroit (particularly the Dexter-Davison neighborhood) moved to Southfield and other inner-ring suburbs such as Oak Park and Huntington Woods. Congregation Shaarey Zedek moved from Detroit to Southfield in 1962 to a modernist synagogue building designed by Percival Goodman. The city was also previously home to Congregation Beth Achim on 12 Mile Road until its merger with Congregation Adat Shalom. The building was later purchased and demolished by a Jewish day school. Though much of the Conservative and Reform Jewish population has since spread out to suburbs such as West Bloomfield and Farmington Hills, the city maintains a thriving Orthodox Jewish and Lubavitch community. It is also home to Farber Hebrew Day School – Yeshivat Akiva, a kosher grocery store, and many independent synagogues.
Religion The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit formerly operated the Church of St. Bede. By 2013 there was a debate on how the property should be rezoned, and therefore reused.