One of the most important things the Census Bureau is doing to improve the count of young children in the 2020 Census is a “first-ever” direct mail campaign focused on areas where young children are most at risk of being missed. The Census Bureau was motivated by the fact that young children were missed at a higher rate than any other age group in the 2010 Census. The Bureau was determined to be much more proactive in trying to get a more complete and accurate count of young children in the 2020 Census compared to past Censuses.
The Census Bureau established a Task Force on the Undercount of Young Children in January 2019 to identify additional steps they could take to improve the count of young children in the 2020 Census. Discussions in that Task Force led to the idea of a direct mail campaign focused on geographic areas where young children are most at risk of being missed in the Census. This idea had been discussed within the Census Bureau before the Task Force was established, but the discussion within the Task Force lifted it up in a way that had not happened before. As discussions proceeded, the idea of targeting only young children morphed into reaching out to other hard-to-count populations in addition to young children.
With less than 12 months before implementation, the Census Bureau moved forward quickly on two different fronts simultaneously. One part of the Census Bureau analyzed 2010 census data to determine the characteristics that were most predictive of high levels of undercounts for young children These results, in conjunction with other census data on the hard-to-count population, helped identify neighborhoods (census tracts) across the country where young children may be most at risk of being missed in the 2020 Census. After the census tracts with the highest risk of missing young children had been identified by Census Bureau staff, that data had to be translated into mail carrier routes used by the U.S. Postal Service. For housing units on these carrier routes, a special mailer was delivered which identified young children as one of the populations that respondents should include on their Census questionnaire.
Communication staff at the Census Bureau developed a postcard (mailer) to remind respondents that young children and other hard-to-count populations should be included in the Census responses. The postcard is called a Every Door Direct Mailer (EDDM) because it does not contain an address but is simply included in the mail delivery to every address on the selected letter carriers route. About 14 million mailers were sent to the selected areas in late February and early March, just prior to the 2020 Census invitation being sent out. The mailer used by the Census Bureau can be viewed here.
This effort is one of the most promising and important efforts of the Census Bureau to promote a complete count of young children in the 2020 Census.
