Southeast Michigan, also called southeastern Michigan, is a region in the

Lower Peninsula of Michigan The Lower Peninsula of Michigan – also known as Lower Michigan – is the larger, southern and less elevated of the Geography of Michigan, two major landmasses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan; the other being the Upper Peninsula of Mic ...

that is home to a majority of the state's businesses and industries as well as slightly over half of the state's population, most of whom are concentrated in

Metro Detroit Metro Detroit is a major metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Michigan, consisting of the city of Detroit and over 200 municipalities in the Southeast Michigan, surrounding area. There are varied definitions of the area, including the officia ...

Geography

It is bordered in the northeast by Lake St. Clair, to the south-east

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( ) is the fourth-largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and also has the shortest avera ...

, and the

Detroit River The Detroit River is an List of international river borders, international river in North America. The river, which forms part of the border between the U.S. state of Michigan and the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ont ...

which connects these two lakes.

Principal cities

*Detroit, the state's largest city (and the nation's eighteenth-largest) and the county seat of Wayne County. * Mount Clemens, the county seat of Macomb County. * Pontiac, the county seat of Oakland County.

Other important cities within the core counties of Oakland, Macomb, and Wayne

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

* Dearborn *

Livonia Livonia, known in earlier records as Livland, is a historical region on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea. It is named after the Livonians, who lived on the shores of present-day Latvia. By the end of the 13th century, the name was extende ...

* Novi *

Romulus Romulus (, ) was the legendary founder and first king of Rome. Various traditions attribute the establishment of many of Rome's oldest legal, political, religious, and social institutions to Romulus and his contemporaries. Although many of th ...

, home to

Detroit Metro Airport Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport is the primary international airport serving Detroit and its surrounding metropolitan area, in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located in Romulus, a Detroit suburb. It is by far Michigan's busiest ...

* Royal Oak * Southfield *

Sterling Heights Sterling Heights is a city in Macomb County, Michigan, Macomb County in the U.S. state of Michigan. A northern Metro Detroit, suburb of Detroit, Sterling Heights is located roughly north of downtown Detroit. As of the 2020 census, the city had ...

, the fourth-largest city (by population) in Michigan. *

Troy Troy (/; ; ) or Ilion (; ) was an ancient city located in present-day Hisarlik, Turkey. It is best known as the setting for the Greek mythology, Greek myth of the Trojan War. The archaeological site is open to the public as a tourist destina ...

* Warren, third-largest city (by population) in Michigan, location of General Motors Technical Center, the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command The United States Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM), and its subordinate Life Cycle Management Command (LCMC),

(TACOM), the

Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center The United States Army DEVCOM Ground Vehicle Systems Center (GVSC) (formerly United States Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC)), located in Warren, Michigan, is the United States Armed Forces' research and ...

(TARDEC), the National Automotive Center (NAC). * West Bloomfield Township

Outlying cities

Some cities are considered within southeast Michigan, while also being a part of another region or metropolitan area. The following cities tend to identify themselves separately from southeast Michigan and are isolated from the core counties of Oakland, Macomb, and Wayne. *

Adrian Adrian is a form of the Latin given name Adrianus or Hadrianus. Its ultimate origin is most likely via the former river Adria from the Venetic and Illyrian word ''adur'', meaning "sea" or "water". The Adria was until the 8th century BC the ma ...

, county seat of Lenawee County and home of Adrian College, Siena Heights University. * Hillsdale, county seat of

Hillsdale County Hillsdale County is a county located in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 45,746. The county seat is Hillsdale. Hillsdale County is the only county in Michigan to border both Indiana and Ohio. Due to an a ...

located between the southeast and southwest corners of the state. * Howell, county seat of Livingston County located between Metro Detroit and the Greater Lansing areas. * Jackson, county seat of Jackson County also considered to be a part of Greater Lansing. * Monroe, county seat of Monroe County. * Port Huron, county seat of St. Clair County, also considered to be part of

the Thumb The Thumb is a region and a peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan, so named because the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, Lower Peninsula is shaped like a mitten. The Thumb area is generally considered to be in the Central Michigan region, east of t ...

. * Saline, a community in Washtenaw County.

Metropolitan area

With 4,488,335 people in 2010,

was the tenth-largest metropolitan area in the United States, while Ann Arbor's metropolitan area ranked 141st with 341,847. Metropolitan areas of southeast Michigan, and parts of

and Flint/Tri-Cities, are grouped together by the U.S. Census Bureau with Detroit-Warren-Livonia MSA in a wider nine-county region designated the Detroit–Ann Arbor–Flint Combined Statistical Area (CSA) with a population of 5,428,000.

Combined Statistical Area

* Genesee County * Lapeer County * Lenawee County (removed from the CSA in 2001 but relisted in 2013) * Livingston County* * Macomb County* * Monroe County* * Oakland County* * Saint Clair County* * Washtenaw County* * Wayne County* Denotes member counties of the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG)

Economy

The main economic activity is manufacturing cars. Major manufacturing cities are Warren,

, Dearborn (Henry Ford's childhood home) and Detroit, also called "Motor City" or "Motown". Other economic activities include banking and other service industries. Most people in Livingston, Macomb, Monroe, Oakland, Washtenaw, and Wayne Counties live in urban areas. In the recent years,

urban sprawl Urban sprawl (also known as suburban sprawl or urban encroachment) is defined as "the spreading of urban developments (such as houses and shopping centers) on undeveloped land near a city". Urban sprawl has been described as the unrestricted ...

has affected the areas of Canton,

Commerce Commerce is the organized Complex system, system of activities, functions, procedures and institutions that directly or indirectly contribute to the smooth, unhindered large-scale exchange (distribution through Financial transaction, transactiona ...

, Chesterfield, and Clinton townships. The metropolitan area is also home to some of the highest ranked hospitals and medical centers, Such as the Detroit Medical Center(DMC), Henry Ford Hospital, Beaumont Hospital, and the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

hospital in Ann Arbor.

SEMCOG Commuter Rail Southeast Michigan, also called southeastern Michigan, is a region in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan that is home to a majority of the state's businesses and industries as well as slightly over half of the state's population, most of whom are c ...

is a proposed regional rail link between Ann Arbor and Detroit. The

is the busiest in the area with the opening of the McNamara terminal and the now completed North Terminal. The airport is located in

. Manufacturing and service industries have replaced agriculture for the most part. In rural areas of Saint Clair County, Monroe, and Livingston Counties still grow crops such as

corn Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout Poaceae, grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples of Mexico, indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago ...

, sugar beets, soy beans, other types of beans, and fruits.

Romeo Romeo Montague () is the male protagonist of William Shakespeare's tragedy ''Romeo and Juliet''. The son of Characters in Romeo and Juliet#Lord Montague, Lord Montague and his wife, Characters in Romeo and Juliet#Lady Montague, Lady Montague, he ...

and northern Macomb County is well known for its apple and peach orchards.

Media

Radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...

Most major Detroit radio stations, such as WJR and WWJ, can be heard in most or all of southeastern Michigan. Port Huron, Howell, Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti, Adrian, and Monroe are also served by their own locally-originating stations.

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

is broadcast locally from Ann Arbor on Michigan Radio WUOM 91.7 FM and from Detroit on WDET-FM 101.9 FM.

Television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

Major television stations include: WJBK Fox 2 Detroit ( Fox), WXYZ Channel 7 ( ABC), WDIV Local 4 (

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

WWJ-TV WWJ-TV (channel 62) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is owned and operated by the CBS television network through its CBS News and Stations division, alongside WKBD-TV (channel 50), an affiliate of The CW. The two ...

CBS 62 ( CBS) and WKBD CW 50 ( CW). Newspaper Daily editions of the ''

Detroit Free Press The ''Detroit Free Press'' (commonly referred to as the ''Freep'') is a major daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest local newspaper owned by Gannett (the publisher of ''USA Today''), and is operated by the Detro ...

'' and ''

The Detroit News ''The Detroit News'' is one of the two major newspapers in the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United S ...

'' are available throughout the area.

External links

Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University, Bibliography on Michigan (arranged by counties and regions)

Info Michigan, detailed information on 630 cities

Michigan Department of Natural Resources website, harbors, hunting, resources and more.

Michigan's Official Economic Development and Travel Site, including interactive map, information on attractions, museums, etc.

Southeast Michigan Council of Governments
{{Michigan Regions of Michigan