What U.S. Census 2000 Data Tell Us about the Number of Children per Housing Unit

Jeanne Gobalet, Lapkoff & Gobalet Demographic Research, Inc.

A student yield is the average number of children enrolled in a particular district’s schools per housing unit. Yield measurements are extremely useful in school demography: among other things, school administrators need to understand their district’s yields in order to assure that facilities are adequate to handle future enrollments. In order to explore factors that affect yields, we analyzed special tabulations of Census 2000 Public Use Microdata Sample data. We investigated how and why yields vary over time, how yields vary by the type and age of housing, how yields vary across states and how yields may vary by the population’s ethnic mix. Our measurements are of child yields, the number of children in a particular age group (say 5 to 17 to reflect possible K-12 enrollments) divided by the number of housing units in that area. The findings reported here provide an excellent basis for understanding yields in individual school districts.