“Why Are Young Children Missed So Often in the Census?”

The study explores why more than 1 million children under age 10 and more than three-quarters of a million children under age 5 were missed in the 2000 Decennial Census. Children are the age group most often missed in the Decennial Census, which is the most important data collection activity undertaken by the U.S. federal statistical system. According to the report, reasons for the massive undercount range from challenges in data collection to the growing complexity of defining and capturing the nation’s families.

The inaccurate count of children is especially important because Census figures are used, in whole or in part, for more than 140 programs that distribute more than $400 billion of federal funds to states and localities. Report author and Casey consultant William O'Hare anticipates more difficulty in achieving a true count of children in 2010 due to the increased number of children living in unusual housing situations and the growing number of racial and ethnic minority households, which have historically been more difficult to count.

Read the report.