The coverage of young children in demographic surveys

The 2010 U.S. Decennial Census had a 4.6 percent net undercount for the population age 0 to 4 compared to a 0.1 percent over count for the total population. While the undercount of young children in the census has gotten considerable attention in recent years, less is known about the coverage of children in demographic surveys. In this paper, we analyze coverage rates by age, race, and Hispanic origin for three surveys conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau - American Community Survey (ACS), Current Population Survey (CPS), and the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). In addition, we estimate modified coverage rates to account for cumulative coverage error in both the survey and the census counts, which are used to calculate the coverage rates. The results show that young children tend to have lower coverage rates than other age groups. Coverage rates for young children in the ACS vary by race and Hispanic origin. The differences in coverage rates for young children in the CPS and SIPP by race and Hispanic origin were not statistically significant.