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Print This PageDetroit, MI
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What's Good
- Home-based day care centers abound: Detroit has 21 licensed home day cares for every 1,000 children under 4 years.
- Motown has 23 percent more public parks than average, relative to population.
Needs Improvement
- Pedestrians have a 94 percent higher than average risk of being killed by a motor vehicle--among the most dangerous in our survey.
- State laws require less-stringent day-care worker checks than most.
- Relative to the number of live births per year, Detroit has 58 percent fewer doulas than average--that figure is the 7th lowest in our survey.
- Midwifery is less widely available than most cities, with 64 percent fewer midwives than average.
- 7.5 percent of Detroit mothers breastfeed their babies exclusively (meaning no solids, formula or other liquids) for 6 months or longer as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics. That's among the bottom 16 percent of cities in our survey.
- Once Detroit mothers begin breastfeeding, they are 22 percent less likely than average to continue through 6 months. That's the 3rd lowest level of follow-through of any city in our report.
- Detroit lacks access to fertility clinics that offer advanced reproductive technology, as reported to the CDC.
- Michigan has no provisions for dependent related tax breaks.
- Compared to other states, Michigan lacks progressive laws on family leave and disability.
- Hospital costs are much higher than average.
- Detroit's violent crime rate is 140 percent higher than average, the highest in our survey, in fact.
- Relative to population, Detroit has fewer specialty retailers of healthy/organic foods and vitamins than most places in our survey.
- Women in Detroit are 69 percent more likely than average to smoke during pregnancy. That's the 5th highest rate in our survey. Nationwide, about 1 out of every 12 pregnant women smokes.
- Detroit has 10 miles of stroller-friendly trails and public pathways, according to our survey of parks departments. In a per capita comparison, that's 90 percent less than the average city in our survey (4th lowest overall relative to population).
