Michigan State Capitol Lansing following a decision made March 17, 1847, to move the capital from Detroit to Lansing. The Detroit building then became a public school (the Union School, at one time the city's only high school) and library until it burned in 1893. The 1835 Michigan Constitution provided that: Prior to 1847, Detroit fought to maintain the Capitol within its jurisdiction, but communities in the growing western part of the state had many reasons for wanting a move inland, including the need to increase defensibility by moving the state government away from the Canada–US border. Detroit had been occupied during the
Lansing–East Lansing metropolitan area Ionia County was added in 1973, but taken out a decade later for the 1990 Census. The Lansing–East Lansing–Owosso Combined Statistical Area includes the Lansing–East Lansing MSA, plus the Owosso μSA, which includes Shiawassee County. As of the 2010 census, the CSA had a population of 534,684. The Lansing Urban Area, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, which measures the extent of the built environment, had a population of 313,532 as of the 2010 census. Lansing–East Lansing MSA Owosso μSA As of the census of 2010, there were 464,036 people, 183,442 households, and 112,131 families residing within the MSA.