The primary purpose of this report is to identify and explain census errors in terms of our hypotheses of the causes of undercount. The results of the evaluation of the causes of undercount for the target groups are based on the Alternative Enumeration (AE) and ethnographic observations. Many Black inner city areas are characterized by high rates of unemployment, poverty, illiteracy, substandard housing, disease, alienation, frustration, and hopelessness. These problems interact to create other problems, such as crime, welfare dependency, inadequate health and medical care, substance abuse, teenage pregnancy and mortality which lead, in turn, to certain types of adaptive behavioral responses by family members and also create difficult problems for census enumeration.

Others in Series

Working Paper

Behavioral Causes of Undercount - Woodburn, Oregon

1992

This coverage report presents the findings of an Alternative Enumeration (AE) conducted in Woodburn, Oregon, for the U.S. Census Bureau.

Working Paper

Alternative Enumeration of Undocumented Salvadorans on Long Island

January 1993

The area selected for an Alternate Enumeration (AE) of undocumented Salvadoran immigrants is located in a bedroom community on the North Shore of Long Island.

Working Paper

The Myth of the Man Under the Bed

1993

This paper summarizes patterns of omissions and erroneous enumerations in the census coverage resulting from two mechanisms of coverage error.

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Related Information

Survey Methods Working Papers

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