The Gazette editor has long been aware that the Town of Wake Forest’s Planning Department kept a running tally of the number of people in town because the list by decades always showed a difference between the U.S. Census figures and the town’s, with the town’s being larger.
This week the Gazette received a link to a page where there was a list of estimated population by the type of dwelling unit that has been updated up through July of this year.
Officially, the town government has to use the 2020 Census figure — currently 47,601 — but it has a running three-page internal document that keeps track of the number of apartments planned for each development along with the number occupied and totals both. The town estimates that each rental unit (apartment) will be home to an average of 2.45 people with an occupancy rate of 96.5 percent. Each owner-occupied unit (house, townhouse or condominium) will house an average of 2.92 people with an occupancy rate of 99.1 percent.
And that is where we find the 56,681 almost current town population number which will grow to 69,956 when all the approved apartments, all the approved townhouses and condos are completed.
The Town of Wake Forest has to have those real numbers which affect a number of calculations, plans and forecasts. For example, The Wake County Board of Elections can tell the Gazette that there are 35,694 registered voters inside the town limits who could vote in this week’s election for three town commissioner seats. If the Gazette had to use the 2020 Census population number of 47,601 people that calculation would seriously skew the percentage of voters who went to the polls yesterday.
As it is, based on the nearly-current number of people in town, we can say that 63 percent of the town’s population are registered voters. The only question the night of the election is what percentage actually have voted. That number will be in the article about the election.
And we — the editor and the readers — can keep a reasonably accurate count by adding on the seven people or eight who come to town each day. August, September and October have 92 days and seven times that is 644 so the nearly accurate number of town residents is 57,325. Just keep adding.
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