Abstract
Despite the fact that there has been a persistent and significant net undercount of children in the U.S. Decennial Census for many decades, this problem has received little systematic attention in the demographic literature. This study begins to fill that gap by providing detailed documentation of the net undercount of children in the 2010 Decennial Census based on demographic analysis.
In 2010, there was a net overcount for adults (people age 18 +) of 0.7 %, or 1.7 million people, compared to a net undercount for children (people age 0–17) of 1.7 %, or about 1.3 million people. With a net undercount rate of 4.6 %, young children (age 0–4) have the highest net undercount rate of any age group. Moreover, young Black and young Hispanic children (age 0–4) have higher than average net undercount rates, and these two groups account for about two-thirds of the net undercount of nearly 1 million children under age 5. There was a net overcount of people age 14–17 in the 2010 Census. The net overcount of people age 14–17 is completely accounted for by the high net overcount of Blacks and Hispanics in this age group.
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O’ Hare, W. (2015). The Net Undercount of Children in the 2010 U.S. Decennial Census. In: Hoque, M., B. Potter, L. (eds) Emerging Techniques in Applied Demography. Applied Demography Series, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8990-5_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8990-5_4
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