Annotated Bibliography on Key Research Related to the Undercount of Young Children in the U.S. Census

This annotated bibliography was assembled by Dr. William P. O’Hare. The high net undercount of young children in the U.S. Census is a significant and growing problem. Unless the approach to counting young children in the 2030 Census differs from past attempts, there is no reason to expect improvement in 2030. It is hoped that this bibliography will help researchers, demographers, data analysts, census stakeholders, and child advocates gain a better understanding of past research on the undercount of young children in the U.S. Census and promote more research related to this issue going forward. I am sure I have overlooked a few studies related to the undercount of young children in the U.S. Census, but I am confident that this is the most complete bibliography on this topic. I believe it provides a good overview of the research in this area. Some reports, particularly the Census Bureau reports based on Demographic Analysis, that have data on the undercount of young children but are not focused on the undercount of young children are not included here. A few reports included here are focused on all children (population ages 0 to 17) rather than young children (ages 0 to 4) Entries are sorted by year and presented from newest to oldest.

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