Eau Claire's Population & Housing Changes

Eau Claire's age of housing and changing population size are related in interesting ways. The city's total population of 262,255 from 1870-1970 -- when this study ended -- is shown as a percentage by each decade. Notice the slow increase in the population, and sometimes no growth at all. Yet the housing stock fluctuated considerably: rapid growth, then a decline (1890-1900), an increase again, a decline again (1930s), an increase again, and a group once more (1960-1970s). The 1970s decline is steeper than actually occurred because not all houses were surveyed for this study for this decade.

Sources:
1) Eau Claire Housing Survey, 1978-85;
2) U.S. Bureau of the Census, Population Statistics.