Officials in college towns all over the U.S. are concerned that off-campus students are being counted in places other than the communities where their schools are located.
That’s setting the stage for an expected major undercount for the 2020 census in college towns where students can make up as much as three-quarters of the population. The situation could result in severe shortfalls in federal dollars these college towns would normally expect and also a dilution of their political power over the next decade. Off-campus students are said to account for 4 million of the 19 million college students in the U.S.
