Be leery of economic and population statistics on
-
6/26/2008
Economic statistics on Auburn are as blurry as population data for the same reason: Differentiating college students from locals can be tricky. A large proportion of college students have little or no income at all and thus the average household income in Auburn is extremely under-valued. A visit to Auburn can help clarify how it is that a town with an average household income seemingly below the poverty level is chock full of affluent neighborhoods.
As for population data, college students may or may not declare Auburn as their home, therfore the data tends to under-represent the number of people actually living in Auburn. Auburn's population swells as the Fall semester begins and drops off each summer. Who knows how many people are really living there at any given time, but it's somewhere north of the 51,000 official number of residents.
Kim Price | Huntsville, AL