Sep 1, 2020 - Health

Coronavirus hits college town businesses

A college student on Harvard's campus

Harvard Square in Cambridge. Photo: Lane Turner/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

Small businesses and workers in college towns are hurting as the pandemic pushes universities to go online.

The big picture: Hundreds of local economies across the country rely on the annual influx of students and professors to stay afloat.

Businesses in college towns are 24% more likely to shutter permanently than their counterparts in other towns, per new Yelp data.

Among the hardest-hit places...

  • College Park, Maryland (University of Maryland), saw 4.4% of businesses close for good.
  • Berkeley, California (University of California, Berkeley), 4.2%.
  • Cambridge, Massachusetts (Harvard and MIT), 3.8%.

Go deeper: College reopening plans are crumbling

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