Potential Explanations for Why People Are Missed in the U.S. Census

Abstract

Knowing the characteristic of people most likely to be missed in the Census is not the same as knowing why they are missed. In this Chapter information is provided on several of the leading ideas about why people are missed in the Census along with data related to many of the ideas. The topic is first approached from broad theoretical perspective then more detailed reasons are examined. The chapter draws heavily on the literature in survey research methodology.