Naperville is a growing city – officials predict that since the 2010 census, the city has gained approximately 5,000 people.
While the next national census isn’t until 2020, the city is taking the time to count up its new population now.
“A lot of people are familiar with the every 10 years census when every person is counted, but a special census comes about when a municipality such as Naperville believes it has had a significant population growth since the last census,” said Kate Schultz, a communications specialist with the City of Naperville.
Counting up those additional residents could bring more state tax revenue to the city.
“Certain state taxes are distributed based on a population basis. Those include the income tax, local use tax, and those are distributed on a per capita basis so we’d like to capture that additional income if we have additional residents,” said Schultz.
With the expected 5,000 person population increase, the city predicts they would gain an additional $1.67 million in state tax revenue from March 2019 to May 2021, when the 2020 census results take effect.
The census will start in mid February and will last a few months.
The last special census Naperville took was in 2008, which counted an additional 8,000 residents and brought the city more than $2.6 million in additional revenue.
Naperville is looking for census takers until January 8, information about available positions can be found on their website.
Naperville News 17’s Blane Erwin reports.
