(The Center Square) – Five years ago this week, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced the first statewide actions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Closing the schools and issuing Michigan’s Stay Home, Stay Safe order, Michigan’s state government hoped to “flatten the curve” of COVID-19 infections in the state.
Now, five years later, here is a look at how Michigan’s population, K-12 educational outcomes, and businesses have fared since then.
Population Changes and Migration
In 2019, there were nearly 10 million people living in Michigan, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Five years later, the total population estimate for Michigan is 10.1 million.
For over a decade Michigan’s population has been struggling. Since the 2010 Census, Michigan’s population grew by just 2% over the following decade, snagging the spot for the second-slowest growing state in the country.
While an ongoing problem, it was exacerbated over 2020 and 2021.
In 2020, there was a slight decline in population in the state. Yet, it looked bleakest in 2021 when the state reported a net loss of 31,000, largely driven by domestic migration out of Michigan.
Migration wasn’t only out of the state though. Even for the Michiganders who stayed in the state, many moved to rural counties in the wake of the pandemic.
Recovery has been slow since those population drops during the height of COVID, and largely driven by international migration to Michigan.
Even in 2024 with 0.6% total population growth year-over-year, Michigan’s population was growing slower than the national average of 1%.
K-12 Testing and Enrollment
Like almost all K-12 students throughout the nation, Michigan students have struggled academically since the COVID shutdowns.
Labeled by many the “pandemic learning loss,” lagging test scores and declining student enrollment has continued to plague Michigan’s schools.
For example, from 2022 to 2024 the “Nation’s Report Card” reported that fourth-grade math scores had only marginal improvement, while eighth-grade math and fourth- and eighth-grade reading scores actually declined slightly.
Across the state, the report found that 75% of fourth-graders cannot read proficiently. This is down from before the pandemic in 2019, when 68% of fourth-graders could not read proficiently.
Michigan schools also have yet to recover from that the massive drop in enrollment that happened over the course of the pandemic, according to Michigan School Data.
In the 2019-2020 school year, there were 1.5 million students enrolled. In 2020-2021, that dropped to 1,438,000.
Since then, enrollment has been stagnant, with just 1,427,000 students enrolled for the 2024-2025 school year. That is 5% lower than before COVID.
There are likely a number of factors contributing to both the drop in testing and in enrollment.
Tom Kane, a Harvard economist who worked on The Nation’s Report Card, said that “the [testing] losses are not just due to what happened during the 2020 to 2021 school year, but the aftershocks that have hit schools in the years since the pandemic.”
One of those aftershocks likely affecting test scores is the rise in absenteeism since COVID.
“Far too many students are chronically absent,” said State Superintendent Dr. Michael F. Rice in 2024, when a report from the Michigan Department of Education found that 30% of students are chronically absent.
That’s up 10% from the 2019-2020 school year, when 20% were chronically absent.
Businesses and Workforce Participation
Economically, Michigan also continues to struggle on many different fronts in the years since 2020.
In 2024, CNBC reported that Michigan’s economy ranked as a D, while the workforce rating was a C-.
Unemployment has been an ongoing challenge. In Dec. 2019, the unemployment rate was 3.8%. Five years later, it is 5.2%. While an improvement from its peak in 2020 of 23%, it has also been consistently worse post-pandemic than it was in the years before 2020.
Michigan businesses faced unique challenges through the pandemic, according to a survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That survey found that 32% of Michigan businesses suffered mandated closure during the pandemic, compared to the national average of 19%.
This seems to have had ongoing impacts on the economy in the state. In 2024, the Small Business Association of Michigan reported that instead of recovering as it should have since 2020, “Michigan continues to track downward toward the lowest performing state,” especially in small business growth and vitality.
“While there has been impressive rebound in some areas, Michigan’s economy has not shown its typical exuberance and is now lagging behind neighboring states,” said Brian Calley, the association’s president and CEO.
