School officials worry about student populations with new census figures
The elder population of South Bergen has strayed from the county trend of increasing overall and actually declined from 2000-2010 while more younger children are living within local borders. The shift may spell trouble for schools in coming years, which are already exasperated by student population increases in recent years.
According to new U.S. Census figures on local level demographics released late last month, while median ages in all South Bergenite coverage area towns either remained steady or slightly decreased, the overall amount of seniors 65 and older dropped dramatically in some cases while the amount of small children, those at pre-kindergarten ages or younger, have risen in all but one town.
Lyndhurst, a town which is reeling from the defeat of a recent middle school referendum to help alleviate overcrowding in existing schools, had 147 more children under the age of five last year than it had in 2000. A total of 1,106 pre-elementary aged children lived in the township last year, which was about 5.4 percent of the township’s total population. In total, Lyndhurst’s population rose 1,171 to make it the only local town to eclipse 20,000 residents. Lyndhurst’s elder demographic, 65 and over, decreased by 221