The 2020 Census missed more than 1.5 million children. The undercount was 2.1% for children under 18 and 5.4% for those under 5, the highest rate of any age group. A new PRB analysis looks at how the Census Bureau's Sept. 10 proposed rules could make some children even harder to count.
Three pieces of the proposal matter most for kids:
- A possible legal-status question. It could discourage some immigrant families from responding to the census. About 18.3 million children live with at least one immigrant parent, and most are U.S.-born citizens.
- New residence rules. These count one hour at a residence as a full day and use tax records as evidence of where someone lives. They also don't carry forward the specific 2020 guidance for shared custody and other complex living arrangements. Roughly 1 in 8 children live in a household headed by someone other than a parent, and children in these arrangements already face higher risks of being missed or counted in the wrong place.
- Removing race and ethnicity questions. Without them, it would be much harder to see who is being undercounted. The Census Bureau's Post-Enumeration Survey estimated that Black and Hispanic/Latino children under 5 were undercounted by 8.2% and 7.3%, respectively, in 2020.
Read the PRB analysis.
Count All Kids also has a helpful guide to the residence rule's implications for children.
Read the proposed rule and submit comments via the Federal Register. Comments are due October 13.
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Mark Mather
Associate VP
PRB
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