The Detroit–Windsor region is an international transborder agglomeration comprising the American city of Detroit, Michigan, the Canadian city of Windsor, Ontario, and the Detroit River between them. The Detroit–Windsor area acts as a critical commercial link straddling the

Canada–United States border The border between Canada and the United States is the longest international border in the world. The terrestrial boundary (including boundaries in the Great Lakes, Atlantic, and Pacific coasts) is long. The land border has two sections: Can ...

and has a total population of 5,976,595.World Agglomerations
Retrieved on May 24, 2009. It is North America's largest cross-border

conurbation A conurbation is a region comprising a number of metropolises, cities, large towns, and other urban areas which through population growth and physical expansion, have merged to form one continuous urban or industrially developed area. In most cas ...

. The Detroit–Windsor area covers the southeastern Michigan counties of St. Clair, Macomb, Lapeer, Genesee, Livingston, Oakland, Washtenaw, Monroe and Wayne; as well as the southern Ontario counties of

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Gr ...

, Lambton,

Chatham-Kent Chatham-Kent ( 2021 population: 104,316)Windsor.

Overview

The Detroit–Windsor region is not recognized formally as a single metropolitan area by either the U.S. or Canadian government. If it were, the region would be the eighth most populous urban region in North America. Nevertheless, the communities have been historically tied by several partnerships and agreements, including the Detroit and Windsor Tunnel Corporation, the firm that is owned equally by the City of Detroit and

City of Windsor Windsor is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, on the south bank of the Detroit River directly across from Detroit, Michigan, United States. Geographically located within but administratively independent of Essex County, Ontario, Essex Coun ...

and operates the

tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube const ...

. The cities are historically linked through the rise of the auto industry in both countries due to the U.S.-Canadian

Auto Pact Auto may refer to: * An automaton * An automobile * An autonomous car * An automatic transmission * An auto rickshaw * Short for automatic * Auto (art), a form of Portuguese dramatic play * ''Auto'' (film), 2007 Tamil comedy film * Auto (play), ...

in the 1960s, and share geopolitical concerns affecting transportation and shared resources, such as the Detroit River. Many federal, state and provincial bi-national agreements affecting trade and border security also link the region. Today, increasing governmental co-operation is being formalized. On June 15, 2012, the construction of a new bridge between Windsor and Detroit was announced in the two cities by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Transport Minister Denis Lebel and Michigan Governor Rick Snyder. The bridge announcement was a long-anticipated formalization of a new partnership between Canada and Michigan, with Canada paying the entire Michigan share of the new bridge, including a new interchange with Interstate-75. The joint Royal Canadian Mounted Police and

U.S. Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mult ...

Shiprider program of marine border security are examples. The increasing interdependence of Detroit–Windsor was recognized by U.S. regional business and government in 2007 when Windsor Mayor

Eddie Francis Edgar "Eddie" Francis (born May 1974) is the former mayor of Windsor, Ontario. He was 29 years old when he was elected mayor in 2003, the youngest mayor in Windsor's history and one of the youngest mayors ever elected in Canada. He is also Windso ...

was invited to take part in, and speak at, the annual ''Mackinac Policy Conference'', a committee of regional business and political leaders, developed to address the economic and quality of life issues that matter most to Southeast Michigan.

Economy

Detroit is home to the Big Three automobile companies. As a result, Windsor is home to the Chrysler Canada Headquarters and car plants for two of the "Big Three". The city of Detroit has experienced severe economic difficulties over the years. Population loss has been occurring continuously since the 1950s, so that the population has declined more than 60% since its peak, poverty and crime have become significant issues, and at least 50,000 of the city's structures are abandoned. The affluent suburbs, however, are magnets for immigrants, wealth, and population growth. Windsor's economy is reliant on the automotive industry, but has diversified. As an example, Caesars Windsor casino, the largest in Canada, attracts visitors from the Metro Detroit region. In fact, Kwame Kilpatrick stated that Detroit is transitioning "from a manufacturing economy to a casino economy" in his re-election campaign. Moreover, Windsor's economy has continued to diversify with several hundred green-energy jobs having been created as of June 2011. More capital investment in the city is expected, especially in the aerospace and air cargo industry. Windsor Airport is currently undergoing a major expansion, with an aircraft maintenance and repair hangar being constructed, as well as cargo facilities for air to rail/road transport. Many people commute across the Detroit–Windsor International border daily. Professions identified in the ''1988 Free Trade Act'' are permitted

TN Visa TN status (or TN classification; "TN" from Trade NAFTA) is a special non-immigrant classification of foreign nationals in the United States, which offers expedited work authorization to a citizen of Canada or a national of Mexico. It was created ...

s for legal work in the United States and Canada. As an example, over 5,000 Windsor residents work, in the healthcare industry, and 16,000 overall in Metro Detroit as such, the industry is one of Windsor's largest indirect employers. One of the largest U.S. law firms, Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone P.L.C., has offices in both Windsor and Detroit. A 2004 Border Transportation Partnership study showed that 257,000 jobs in Michigan and $13 billion in annual production depend on the Detroit–Windsor international

border Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders ca ...

crossing. With many new businesses in the suburbs, the region is competitive in

emerging technologies Emerging technologies are technologies whose development, practical applications, or both are still largely unrealized. These technologies are generally new but also include older technologies finding new applications. Emerging technologies ...

including

biotechnology Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used by ...

, nanotechnology, information technology, and hydrogen fuel cell development.

Demographics

Together, the two metropolitan areas have a population of almost 6,000,000 people, with 5.4 million in the Detroit area, 375,000 people in Essex County ( Windsor), 125,000 in

Lambton County Lambton County is a county in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. It is bordered on the north by Lake Huron, which is drained by the St. Clair River, the county's western border and part of the Canada-United States border. To the south is Lake Saint C ...

(

Sarnia Sarnia is a city in Lambton County, Ontario, Canada. It had a Canada 2021 Census, 2021 population of 72,047, and is the largest city on Lake Huron. Sarnia is located on the eastern bank of the junction between the Upper and Lower Great Lakes w ...

), and 110,000 in

Chatham-Kent Chatham-Kent ( 2021 population: 104,316)Ontario. It is the second largest border region in the world, after Kinshasa-

Brazzaville Brazzaville (, kg, Kintamo, Nkuna, Kintambo, Ntamo, Mavula, Tandala, Mfwa, Mfua; Teke: ''M'fa'', ''Mfaa'', ''Mfa'', ''Mfoa''Roman Adrian Cybriwsky, ''Capital Cities around the World: An Encyclopedia of Geography, History, and Culture'', ABC-CL ...

in Central Africa, with some 5,700,000 people living in its metropolitan area. The Detroit side contains over one-half of the population of Michigan, whereas Windsor and Sarnia contain only two percent of Ontario's population. An estimated 46 million people, nearly 16% of the U.S. population, live within a radius of the area, with other metropolitan areas within this radius, such as Toronto, Ontario; Hamilton, Ontario;

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Southe ...

; Erie, Pennsylvania; Cleveland, Ohio;

Akron, Ohio Akron () is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, about south of downtown Cleveland. As of the 2020 Census, the city pro ...

; Toledo, Ohio;

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and ...

; Cincinnati, Ohio; Indianapolis, Indiana; Northern Kentucky;

Grand Rapids, Michigan Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the second most-populated city in the state after Detroit. Grand Rapids is the ...

; London, Ontario; Regional Municipality of Waterloo, Ontario; Flint, Michigan; Saginaw, Michigan; Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Chicago, Illinois. While about four-fifths of the population of Metro Detroit lives outside the city itself, Windsor has a balanced population between the city of Windsor itself and the rest of Essex County. The Detroit metro area comprises over 200 cities, villages and townships ranging in population from the hundreds to the hundreds of thousands. Windsor's CMA, however, has only eight official municipalities (with Windsor being a recent separated municipality), consisting of LaSalle (pop. 30,200), Tecumseh (pop. 23,200),

Amherstburg Amherstburg is a town near the mouth of the Detroit River in Essex County, Ontario, Canada. In 1796, Fort Malden was established here, stimulating growth in the settlement. The fort has been designated as a National Historic Site. The town is ...

(pop. 22,000), Lakeshore (pop. 36,611) Leamington-Kingsville (pop. 49,150) and Windsor itself (pop. 229,660). Within each of these municipalities lie several smaller communities that serve as bedroom communities for Windsor's working force. Windsor has recently been given a boost by immigration. However, Detroit itself has less than half of its peak population.

References

External links

International MetropolisWorld Trade Center Detroit Windsor
{{DEFAULTSORT:Detroit-Windsor Metropolitan areas of Ontario Detroit River Populated places on the Detroit River Twin cities Canada–United States border Metro Detroit Divided regions Transborder agglomerations

Overview

Economy

Demographics

See also

References

External links