Undercount of Young Children in 2020 Census Threatens Nationwide Gains for Kids

BALTIMORE, June 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Annie E. Casey Foundation today warned policymakers and child advocates of troubling consequences for the nation's kids with the likely undercount of about 1 million children under five in the 2020 census, as the Foundation released the 2018 KIDS COUNT® Data Book, its annual look at U.S. child well-being that includes a ranking of the 50 states.

In this year's Data Book, the Foundation noted that about 4.5 million young children live in neighborhoods where there's a high risk of an undercount. (Editors: State data are available). An undercount of young children would shortchange children over the next decade by putting at risk hundreds of millions of dollars of federal funding for programs that are critical to family stability and opportunity.

"If we don't count children, we render their needs invisible and their futures uncertain," said Casey Foundation President and CEO Patrick McCarthy. "A major census undercount will result in overcrowded classrooms, shuttered Head Start programs, understaffed hospital emergency rooms and more kids without health care." Roughly 300 federal programs use census-derived data to allocate more than $800 billion a year.

NATIONAL TRENDS, STATE RANKINGS IN CHILD WELL-BEING

The Data Book measures child well-being in four domains: economic, education, health, and family and community. This year's Data Book shows upward trends in many aspects of child well-being, although troubling disparities persist among children of color and those from low-income and immigrant families.

New Hampshire ranked first in overall child well-being. Massachusetts, New Jersey, Minnesota and Iowa round out the top five.

Mississippi ranks 48^th, its highest ranking in more than a quarter century. Louisiana is 49^th and New Mexico 50^th.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation offered the following recommendations to achieve a more accurate census: maximize the Census Bureau's capacity, fund state and local outreach, expand the pool of trusted messengers, address the digital divide and address privacy and confidentiality concerns:

The 2018 KIDS COUNT® Data Book — and news releases and profiles for every state — can be found at www.aecf.org/databook.

Contact: Lucille Renwick, [email protected], 917-326-2643 or Beau Boughamer, [email protected], 410-458-5018

SOURCE The Annie E. Casey Foundation

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