Metro Detroit has the following ethnic groups:

White/European Americans

In the early 20th century, white immigrants from Europe and migrants from the Southern United States moved into the eastside of Detroit and established ethnic groups began moving to more outlying areas. Around World War I ethnic Poles were the largest ethnic group in Detroit. In the early 20th century, "native"-born whites, Scots-Irish Appalachian hill people, former farmhands from Midwestern states, and wealthier descendants of older ethnic groups in Detroit lived in outlying areas of Detroit. Steve Babson, author of Working Detroit: The Making of a Union Town, wrote that "native" whites dominated these outlying areas.Babson, p. 27. Immigrants from English-speaking countries lived throughout the city of Detroit, and Highland Park's concentration of those immigrants was higher than average.

From 1990 to 2000 over half of the white population that remained in Detroit left the city. As of 2000, Livonia was 96% white, making it the city in the United States with over 100,000 people that had the highest percentage of white people."Race and Ethnicity in the Tri-County Area: Selected Communities and School Districts". () From a Child's Perspective: Detroit Metropolitan Census 2000 Fact Sheets Series. Wayne State University. June 2002. Volume 2, Issue 2. p. 1. Retrieved on November 10, 2013. From 2013 to 2014 the white population in the City of Detroit rose by 8,000; this was the first significant increase in the white population there since 1950.Aguilar, Louis and Christine Macdonald. "Detroit's white population up after decades of decline" (). The Detroit News. September 17, 2015. Retrieved on December 10, 2015.

Albanian American

The organization Global Detroit stated that the largest group of ethnic Albanians not in Europe is in Metro Detroit. As of 2014, 4,800 ethnic Albanians live in Macomb County, making up the fourth-largest ethnic group, and the highest concentration of Albanians in Metro Detroit."India leads all nations in sending people to Detroit" ( ). Crain's Detroit Business. June 1, 2014. Updated June 6, 2014. Retrieved on September 29, 2014.

Jewish American

As of 2001 about 96,000 Jewish Americans live in Metro Detroit. 75% of them live in Oakland County. Many are in walking distances to their synagogues.Woodford, p. 188. As of 2006 the Jews living in Windsor, Ontario, live closer to Downtown Detroit than the Jewish communities within Metro Detroit.Stiefel, p. 8.

Macedonian Americans

According to the Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups, almost all of Macedonian Americans in the U.S. until World War II classified themselves as Macedonian Bulgarians or simply as Bulgarians.

Around 50,000 Macedonians immigrated to the United States following the 1903 Ilinden Uprising, including many settling in Detroit, Dearborn, and Dearborn Heights. The Henry Ford $5 per day salary and wages in the auto industry caused Macedonian immigration to increase. After World War I Macedonians in Bouf, Greece were forced to leave, so several went to Michigan.Cetinich, page unstated Google Books PT32. After the 1924 Immigration Act, many Macedonians entered Detroit via Canada to get around the new law.Cetinich, page unstated Google Books PT32-PT33. More Macedonians immigrated to Michigan after the Greek Civil War.Cetinich, page unstated Google Books PT33.

As of 1951 there were about 10,000 Macedonian ethnic people in the city. In 1904 the group began arriving to Detroit and the years 1911 to 1919 had the largest amount of immigration. Many Macedonians from Bulgaria, Vardar in the Macedonia of Yugoslavia, and Bouf, Greece settled in Metro Detroit to the Refugee Act of 1953 and the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, with Hamtramck as their settlement area.Cetinich, page unstated Google Books PT35.

Historically Macedonians have operated Coney islands.Yung, Katherine and Joe Grimm. Coney Detroit. Wayne State University Press, 2012. , 9780814337189. p. 2. Besides the auto industry, Macedonians also had construction, service industry, and trucking jobs.

Mike Ilitch is an ethnic Macedonian.

According to Cetinich Macedonians operate most of the Polish bakeries in Hamtramck and he stated that many Macedonian immigrants who operated bakeries and restaurants used the Greek ethnicity as their identity "in order to simplify their complicated immigration history".

In 1925 Macedonians in Detroit founded the Selskoto samopomošno društvo Buf ("Buf Village Benevolence Society").Klemenčič, Matjaž. "Macedonians and Macedonian Americans, to 1940". In: Barkan, Elliott Robert (editor). Immigrants in American History: Arrival, Adaptation, and Integration. ABC-CLIO, 2013. , 9781598842197. (Start p. 499). Cited: p. 502. In the 1920s Boof and Tetovo societies were only for men.Babson, p. 45.

According to Babson, during the 1920s men "were the unquestioned authority and usually the sole breadwinner among adult members" of Bulgarian families, especially Macedonian ones, and that wives of first generation immigrants were only able to socialize in the house, marketplace, and church.

In the 1990s, ethnic Macedonians in Sterling Heights, together with ethnic Serbs, had the nickname "Yugos" and they often had conflicts with "Albos", or ethnic Albanians.Murray, Dublin. "Teen-age strife in Detroit suburb reflects ethnic conflicts of Yugoslavia's civil war" ( ). The_Baltimore_Sun. December 22, 1991. Retrieved on September 28, 2014.

Greek American

As of 1999 120,000 in Metro Detroit indicated they are of Greek descent.Baulch, Vivian M. (September 4, 1999). "" () Michigan History, The Detroit News. Retrieved on April 4, 2009. Stavros K. Frangos, author of Greeks in Michigan, stated "From the 1890s to the present all available sources agree that" about one third of Michigan's Greek Americans live in Metro Detroit.Frangos, page unstated PT30 of Google Books.

Hungarian American

In the late 1890s the Hungarians began to populate Detroit. They settled Delray in Southwest Detroit.Woodford, p. 186. In 1898 the Michigan Malleable Iron Company began operations in Delray. Hungarian immigrants moved to Delray from cities including Cleveland, Ohio; South Bend, Indiana; and Toledo, Ohio to get better working conditions and better wages.Beynon, p. 755. In 1905 a Hungarian Catholic church opened in Delray. The Holy Cross Hungarian Catholic Church opened sometime before 1925. The Hungarians became one of the largest groups to settle in Detroit in the early 20th century. The Delray-Springwells area served as the "Little Hungary" of Detroit and Michigan's Hungarian culture was centered in that community.

In the 1950s Hungarians escaped the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, causing more to arrive in Delray. The construction of Interstate 75 in the mid-1960s destroyed large parts of Delray and divided the community into two pieces. Middle and working class Hungarians moved to Allen Park, Lincoln Park, Melvindale, and Riverview.Collum and Krueger, p. 177. Some Hungarians also moved to Taylor."Popular band plays soulful music, Hungarian style". The Detroit News. August 21, 2002. Retrieved on December 3, 2013. ID: det12771002. "opened in 1965, the ethnic group began moving to Allen Park and Taylor."

Italian American

The National Italian American Foundation estimated that in 1990, Metro Detroit had 280,000 ethnic Italians.Delicato, p. 7. As of 2005 the closest remaining large Little Italy near Detroit was Via Italia in Windsor, Ontario, and there was a group of remaining Italian shops and restaurants along Garfield Road in Clinton Township. In 2005 Armando Delicato, author of Italians in Detroit, wrote that "Unlike some other national groups, like the Poles, who still look to Hamtramck, or the Mexicans, who have Mexicantown, Italian Detroiters no longer have a geographical center".Delicato, p. 8.

Polish American

As of 2001, the Metro Detroit area had the U.S.'s second largest Polish ethnic concentration after Chicago.Woodford, p. 185. By the 21st century, the Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties formed the center of Michigan's Polish populations. Many Poles had moved from Hamtramck, and Troy became the center of the Polish-American community."Introduction". () Polish Americans in Michigan. Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan. Retrieved on December 5, 2013.

Romani American

There is a Roma community in Detroit. Many Romani people in the Detroit metro area are of Hungarian and Slovak origin.

Romanian American Around 1904 Romanians began arriving in Michigan, with most of them settling in Detroit.McGinnis, p. 222. By 1920 the city had the largest concentration of Romanians in the Midwestern United States.Radzilowski, p. 231. After an influx of thousands Romanians into Detroit from Cleveland, Ohio, occurring from 1920 to 1926, due to automobile industry jobs, Detroit gained the largest Romanian population in the United States. A Romanian episcopate established for serving the United States was established in Detroit in 1929. By 1930 the state of Michigan had over 11,000 Romanians. As of 2005, 26,857 persons with Romanian ancestry lived in southwest Detroit.

Other White/European American As of 2001, Metro Detroit also had the U.S.'s largest concentrations of Belgians and Maltese people that year.

A group of Dutch people arrived in Detroit after Henry Ford's $5 per day wage announcement. Jan Reef, a Dutch immigrant to Detroit, developed a gear process utilized by early automakers. Arthur M. Woodward, author of This is Detroit, 1701-2001, wrote that "the auto industry is indebted to" Reef.

As of 1951, the Estonian newspapers distributed in Detroit were published in other cities. Those newspapers were Estonian Word, Free Estonian Word, Our Road, and Our Voice. As of that year there were no Estonian-language schools in Detroit.Mayer, p. 16.

The first Finns to move to Detroit arrived to manufacture automobile bodies for the Ford Motor Company. They were previously skilled metalworkers in Massachusetts. Many Finns located in the copper country in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan moved down to Detroit after Henry Ford announced his $5 per day wage. Steve Babson, author of Working Detroit, stated that in the 1920s, women from Finnish and Hungarian houses had "considerably more freedom" compared to those from Italian and Macedonian houses.Babson, p. 45-46 Women from Hungarian and Finnish houses opened social groups for both sexes such as political, benevolent, and sports groups; women from the ethnicities often had more encouragement to attend high school and further education compared to Italians and Macedonians.Babson, p. 46

As of 1999, 25% of people in Metro Detroit stated that they had German heritage. The state of Michigan sent representatives to New York and Germany, including Bavaria, to attract German workers during the middle of the 1800s. Historically in Detroit Germans who were in the trades focused on the brewing industry. Most Germans in Detroit moved to areas along Gratiot in the east side while some moved to areas in Michigan Avenue. In a later period, many Germans resettled in Macomb County.

As of 1951, there was no specific Lithuanian cemetery in Detroit.Feinstein, p. 150.

In 1904, the City of Detroit had 1,300 Russians. By 1925, the number of Russians increased to 49,000. As of 1951, there were no Russian newspapers in Detroit.Mayer, p. 65.

Historically, in Detroit, Scots who were in the trades focused on tool-making and practiced their trade in automobile plants.