Despite years of warnings, census experts worry it's likely that children younger than 5 will be under counted again in next year's survey – and that could mean more difficulty for low-income families reliant on government-backed services.
One of the biggest stumbling blocks is awareness. Many households do not include young children when they return their census forms, according to people who study the population and demographics.
Young children are difficult to count for many reasons, said Bill O'Hare, a census expert for the Count All Kids Committee. They tend to have young parents who aren't likely to fill out census materials and who might be in the middle of significant life shifts like career transitions and go through housing insecurity, which may make the census a low priority.
"A lot of young kids are living with young single parents, and those are often very economically vulnerable parents. So they end up moving into other people's households more than older children would, so they would most likely be missed," O'Hare said. "That can be a problem with kids living with grandparents. The grandparent may not see the grandchild as part of his/her family, so many of those situations are viewed as temporary even though they may not be.
Federal agencies use data derived from the census to create a budget every year. Over $900 billion in federal funds gets distributed annually to state and local governments,
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