Census misses mean big losses

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- The 1990 Census overlooked 4.5 percent of the children in Texas and more than 4 percent in several other states, costing those communities billions in federal aid, a youth advocacy group said Thursday.

It is urging special emphasis on counting youngsters in Census 2000.

"Kids were missed at about twice the rate of adults" in 1990, with minority children even more likely to have been overlooked, said William P. O'Hare, of the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Kids Count Project.

His figures indicate Rhode Island came closest to counting all its youngsters, missing just 1 percent. Kansas missed 1.7 percent of its children.

While the Census Bureau earlier reported about half of the 4 million people missed nationwide in 1990 were children, O'Hare refined bureau data to calculate the rate for each state.

Nationally, the 1990 undercount was 1.6 percent for all ages and 3.2 percent for those 17 and younger.

Census numbers are used to determine how much federal money states get for a variety of programs. The General Accounting Office estimated the undercount cost Texas $1 billion and California perhaps $2 billion in the 1990s, O'Hare said.

He said in 1998, Census data was used in distributing $3.7 billion for foster care programs; $3 billion in women's, infants and children's food programs; $3.2 billion for special education; and $1 billion in block grants for child-care development.

Also affected are funds for such things as school lunch programs, Head Start classes, school construction, hiring teachers, and establishing local day-care and public transit programs, said Jacqueline J. Byers, director of research for the National Association of Counties.

Ronald Henderson, of the National Education Association, said failing to count children results in overcrowded classrooms.

"If we don't know how many children live in a community, we cannot provide adequate school facilities," he said.

The Census Bureau expects it to be even more difficult to count children next year because the population includes more minorities, more foster children, more children in unstable living arrangements and more non-English-speaking families, O'Hare said.

Henderson and Byers urged parents, teachers and others to stress the need for cooperation with next year's Census, which begins April 1.

O'Hare said there are many reasons children are missed. Foster children may not be listed on a temporary caregiver's census form, divorced parents each may think the other listed the children, grandparents may not include children staying with them, some families fear providing information to the government and others worry the landlord will learn how many people are in one apartment.

1990 undercount of childrenThe 1990 Census missed about 1.6 percent of the population,but 3.2 percent of children. Here is a state-by-state list estimating the children overlooked in 1990 as calculated from Census data by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

State Missed RateRhode Island 2,332 1.0

Iowa 8,752 1.2

Massachusetts 18,102 1.3

Minnesota 16,101 1.4

New Hampshire 4,169 1.5

Maine 4,982 1.6

Indiana 24,335 1.6

Connecticut 13,055 1.7

North Dakota 3,022 1.7

Kansas 11,395 1.7

Wisconsin 22,947 1.8

Pennsylvania 50,063 1.8

New Jersey 34,177 1.9

Missouri 25,010 1.9

Vermont 2,778 1.9

Ohio 56,594 2.0

Michigan 51,209 2.0

South Dakota 4,551 2.2

Illinois 70,078 2.3

Utah 15,852 2.5

New York 113,486 2.6

Alaska 4,934 2.8

West Virginia 15,241 3.3

Washington 43,811 3.4

Hawaii 9,732 3.4

State Missed RateOregon 25,277 3.4

Colorado 29,988 3.4

Wyoming 4,954 3.5

Kentucky 36,241 3.7

Idaho 11,703 3.7

Nevada 11,520 3.7

Delaware 6,790 4.0

Tennessee 50,806 4.0

Arkansas 25,714 4.0

Oklahoma 34,430 4.0

Arizona 40,374 4.0

North Carolina 68,669 4.1

Alabama 45,101 4.1

Virginia 65,958 4.2

Montana 9,844 4.2

New Mexico 20,064 4.3

California 344,290 4.3

Maryland 52,139 4.3

South Carolina 42,107 4.4

Georgia 78,898 4.4

Louisiana 57,254 4.5

Mississippi 35,528 4.5

Florida 134,477 4.5

Texas 228,360 4.5

Washington D.C. 7,901 6.3

Copyright 1999
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