Advocacy group: Poor children need to be counted in census

March 24, 2000
Web posted at: 6:41 p.m. EST (2341 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. children, especially those living in poverty, will be shortchanged if they don't get counted in the 2000 Census, the Children's Defense Fund warns. So the nonprofit advocacy group is urging all Americans to fill out census forms and make sure their children are included.

Local communities decide where to build new schools, child care centers and health care facilities based on numbers of children, according to the CDF and the U.S. Census Bureau. But in the 1990 census, 2 million children were missed, the CDF says.

Where billions of dollars in federal funds will go for children's programs such as Head Start, nutrition help, foster care and child care depends on accurate counts of children living in each state.

Children under the age of 18 and the elderly benefit the most from federally funded programs. According to a Census Bureau study, one in four American children -- 23.7 percent -- received benefits for at least one month from programs such as food stamps and general assistance, hot lunch programs, housing assistance and other services from 1992 to 1993.

People who receive long-term benefits, in this case for the two years studied, are most likely to be children -- 14.1 percent of all people receiving benefits. The elderly were the next group most likely to receive assistance, both short-term and long-term.

For more information about the 2000 Census, the bureau has set up a toll-free number: (800) 471-9424.

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US Census Bureau Home Page
Children's Defense Fund

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