Detroit took its first census on the orders of the British commandant, Henry Hamilton, on April 26, 1778.
According to this tally, Detroit’s population stood at 2,144 people, excluding military personnel and prisoners.
Source : Michigan Historical Calendar, courtesy of the Clarke Historical Library at Central Michigan University.
However, at least one census was conducted earlier while Detroit was under French control. A “Census of the Inhabitants of Detroit on September 1, 1750” is reported in Lajeunesse, ed., The Windsor Border Region: Canada’s Southernmost Frontier; a collection of documents, 54-56. A partial translation is provided in Donna Valley Russell, ed., Michigan Censuses 1710-1830 under the French, British, and Americans (Detroit, 1928), p. 15-17 (available at the Library of Michigan and the Michigan Archives). Also mentioned in Bonds of Alliance: Indigenous and Atlantic Slaveries in New France According to the census conducted in 1750, more than a quarter of the 96 French families there owned Indian slaves, who constituted about 7% of the enumerated population.