Detroit Metro Area Communities Study (DMACS) Wave 17, Michigan, 2023 (ICPSR 39629)

Version Date: Mar 26, 2026

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Principal Investigator(s):
Elisabeth Gerber, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan; Jeffrey Morenoff, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, Population Studies Center, Survey Research Center, University of Michigan; Mara Ostfeld, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan

Series:

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR39629.v1

Version V1

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Alternate Title

DMACS

Summary

The Detroit Metro Area Communities Study (DMACS) is a panel survey of Detroit residents aged 18 and older. The original panel of respondents was drawn from an address-based probability sample of all occupied Detroit households in 2016 and has since been refreshed through additional address-based sampling annually. The 17th survey wave, collected between June 2023 and August 2023, sent 5,000 invitations to a randomly selected address-based refreshment sample of Detroit households and invited 2,873 previously-enrolled panelists to participate in a self-administered online or interviewer-administered telephone survey.

Topics included: housing status; perceptions of neighborhood; social cohesion; community involvement; activism; school quality and performance; parks; safety; policing; mental health; immigration; sources of information; household finances; social connection; employment; and party identification.

Citation

Gerber, Elisabeth, Morenoff, Jeffrey, and Ostfeld, Mara. Detroit Metro Area Communities Study (DMACS) Wave 17, Michigan, 2023. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2026-03-26. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR39629.v1

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Funding

United States Department of Health and Human Services. National Institutes of Health (1-OT2-HL-156812-01), University of Michigan. Poverty Solutions, Ballmer Group, Kresge Foundation, Invest Detroit Foundation

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Smallest Geographic Unit

Census Block Groups

Restrictions

This data collection may not be used for any purpose other than statistical reporting and analysis. Use of these data to learn the identity of any person or establishment is prohibited. To protect respondent privacy, the data files in this collection are restricted from general dissemination. To obtain these restricted files, researchers must agree to the terms and conditions of a Restricted Data Use Agreement.

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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Time Period(s)

2023-06-22 -- 2023-08-29

Date of Collection

2023-06-22 -- 2023-08-29

Data Collection Notes

  1. For more information on the Detroit Metro Area Communities Study, please visit the DMACS website.
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Study Purpose

The Detroit Metro Area Communities Study (DMACS) is a University of Michigan initiative designed to regularly survey a broad, representative group of Detroit residents about their communities, including their expectations, perceptions, priorities, and aspirations. Since 2016, University of Michigan's Detroit Metro Area Communities Study has used a city-wide survey to help bridge the gap between Detroit officials and residents whose voices may not always be heard in public discussions. Composed of over 2,000 Detroiters, the ongoing DMACS survey provides valuable insights on the perceptions and attitudes of people who live in Detroit.

Study Design

Surveys were self-administered online or were interviewer-administered via telephone. All respondents who completed the survey received a post-paid incentive, mailed from the University of Michigan. The data collection period for this survey was June 2023 to August 2023.

The questionnaire was developed by the DMACS Principal Investigators. The instrument was programmed and tested by DMACS staff members on mobile and desktop devices to detect issues with question language and ensure the accuracy of skip-pattern logic, randomizations, and other programming issues. The questionnaire was programmed in Qualtrics by DMACS staff and translated into Spanish by CETRA Language Solutions. Respondents were able to select between taking the survey in English or Spanish on the first screen of the survey.

Sample

Panelists were first recruited to the DMACS study in 2016 (Wave 1) from a simple random sample of Detroit household addresses. The panel was refreshed in 2018 (Wave 3) using a stratified two-stage cluster sample which oversampled census block groups that were at least 70% Hispanic (according to the 2016 5-year ACS estimates). In 2019 (Wave 6) the panel was refreshed using a stratified two-stage cluster sample which oversampled households from each of Detroit's 10 Strategic Neighborhood Fund (SNF) neighborhoods. In 2020 (Wave 12) the panel was refreshed using an oversample of households in Census block groups that were at least 70% Hispanic (according to the 2018 5-year ACS estimates) as well as an oversample of households that were located within Detroit's SNF neighborhoods. Since 2022, including Wave 15 and 17, the panel was refreshed annually using an oversample of households in Census block groups whose population was at least 50% Hispanic.

There are currently 2,873 active panelists in the DMACS panel. Panelists have the option to complete the survey online or over the phone in either English or Spanish. Panelists are able to unenroll from the panel at any time. If a panelist does not participate in at least one of the surveys from Wave 12 through 16, they may be retired from the panel. There were some incidents where we decided to drop the respondents from the panel, for example, when they were verbally abusive toward our staff or when they attempted to fill out multiple surveys under false identification (n=2). To encourage participation from groups with lower response propensity, male panelists with less than a college degree were offered a higher post-survey incentive of $40, compared to other panelists who were offered a post-survey incentive of $25.

Time Method

Longitudinal: Panel

Universe

Adults over the age of 18 who reside in the City of Detroit.

Unit(s) of Observation

Individual, Household

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

Response Rates

The overall response rate was 34.3% (using AAPOR Response Rate 1); 68.3% for existing panelists and 12.9% for new panelists.

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Original Release Date

2026-03-26

Version History

2026-03-26 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

  • Created variable labels and/or value labels.
  • Performed recodes and/or calculated derived variables.

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Weight

The DMACS Wave 17 data includes a weighting variable, WEIGHTS, which should be used in conjunction with the post-survey strata variable when conducting analysis. For more weighting information, please see the documentation.

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Notes