By Madeline Fuerstenberg, Community Reporter
With the COVID-19 pandemic affecting all facets of day-to-day life, one area of concern for the city of Eau Claire is the 2020 Census, which could deprive the city of significant population-based revenues if all university students aren’t included.
Pat Ivory, senior planner for the city, said there is some concern that Eau Claire’s population will be undercounted because many UW-Eau Claire students left their rental homes here after the campus was closed for the semester. However, he was unable to provide an estimate of how many students may be missed.
Ivory said an estimated $1,584 in federal funds for Wisconsin cities is lost per person not counted in the census.
That adds up to an estimated loss to the city of nearly $1.8 million if 15 percent of UW-EC’s off-campus students aren’t counted. Any such loss will recur every year until the 2030 census provides new totals.
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