Who Lives in Hard-to-Count Neighborhoods

William O'Hare, Independent Consultant

In September 2014, the U.S. Census Bureau released its 2014 Census Planning Data Base which contains about 500 measures for more than 73,000 Census tracts used in the 2010 Decennial Census. Among the measures included in the Census Planning Data Base is the Final Mail Return Rate for each tract based on the 2010 Decennial Census. In this study I examine the demographic characteristics of the population living in the ten percent of the Census tracts with the lowest Final Mail Return Rate in the 2010 Census. I call these the Hard-to-Count Neighborhoods. Demographic characteristics of the Hard-to-Count neighborhoods are explored including age, race, sex and family structure, along with several socioeconomic measures such as poverty and employment. Demographic groups that are highly clustered in low-mail return rate tracts will be identified.