In 2014, the Census Bureau released a task force report summarizing this issue and recommending research (U.S. Census Bureau 2014). An interdivisional team is currently working on several projects to investigate possible causes for the undercount of young children in the 2010 Decennial Census. As part of this work, we feel it is important to summarize what we know about the living arrangements and characteristics of enumerated young children. Data collection challenges vary by household and housing characteristics. The motivation for this report is to first, consolidate information describing the characteristics of young children and second, to explore if differences exist between these youngest children and older children that might contribute to coverage error. We want to understand if living arrangements or other housing, household, or demographic characteristics of the youngest children differ in important ways from those of older children.

This initial report summarizes basic demographic, housing, and household data from the 2010 Census, comparing the characteristics and living arrangements of young children (age 0 to 4) with those of older children (age 5 to 9 and 10 to 17).