Fact Sheet: Undercount of Young Children (Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights)

Young children are undercounted in the census at a higher rate than any other age group.

Young children – defined as children under age five – have been undercounted for decades, disadvantaging their families, communities, and neighborhoods. In the 2010 Census, the net undercount rate for young children was 4.6 percent, and more than 2.2 million in this age group were not included in the census results. This is a higher net undercount rate than for any other age group. Even among other children, those under five years old are more likely to be missing from census data.

There are many ways in which stakeholders, including advocates, funders, and civic leaders, can improve the count of young children in the 2020 Census. There are opportunities to join or support work on policy development, community organizing, and “Get Out the Count” campaigns for the 2020 Census. Here are some ideas: