PEORIA, Ill. – All in all, officials say the City of Peoria fared well in the 2020 Census, though there are some concerns.
City officials say they’re waiting on some more data, but the population of the city came in at 113,150 — a drop of only 1.6% from ten years prior.
But, there’s a specific population that might have been under-counted.
“The area around Bradley University certainly seems to have shrunk,” says Patrick Urich, City Manager. “It really does seem like, due to COVID during the period of time we were doing the Census, and with students maybe not being on campus, that is certainly had an impact on those numbers.”
The city says a special census could be done to try and rectify that, but it would cost the city.
Because of the change in population, Urich says the makeup of the Peoria City Council districts will need to change.
“If we’re going to continue with five districts, they need to be roughly proportionate in size, from a population standpoint, which would be about 22,630 residents per district,” says Urich.
Urich says that means Districts One through Three need to expand, and Four and Five need to shrink.
The council has put off until later this month appointments by the mayor to an ad hoc committee on re-districting.
The city numbers seem to indicate a growing Hispanic population, along with some increases in other minority populations.
