All demographic surveys including the Current Population Survey (CPS) and the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) suffer from undercoverage of the population. This undercoverage results from missed housing units and missed persons within sample households. Compared to the level of the 1980 Decennial Census, overall CPS and SIPP undercoverage is about 7 percent. Undercoverage varies with age, sex, and race. For some groups such as 20- to 24-year-old black males, the undercoverage is as high as about 35 percent. The weighting procedures used by the Census Bureau partially correct for the bias due to undercoverage. However, its final impact on estimates is unknown.

The child care statistics shown in this report are for the estimated 31 million children under the age of 15 who were living with their mothers who themselves were employed during fall 1991 (September to December). How these children were cared for while their mothers were at work, the complexity of these arrangements, and the changes in arrangements that have occurred within the past decade are some of the topics presented in this report.

This report also estimates hourly costs for child care based on payments made for separate arrangements and for those shared by brothers and sisters in the same family. Since many young children now have both parents in the labor force, this report features the child care arrangements used by dual-employed parents according to their work shift. In addition, the availability of low cost child care arrangements is critical to a growing number of families in which the lone (unmarried) parent must be the sole income provider. This report explores the role that other adult household members play in providing child care services while the mother is at work.

Data on child care arrangements have been collected by the Census Bureau in prior supplements to the Current Population Survey (CPS) since 1958¹ and in supplements to the SIPP since 1984.² This report discusses the most recent statistics on child care arrangements in the United States based on data collected in the SIPP for the period September to December 1991. Data from earlier CPS and SIPP supplements on child care also are presented to show a historical perspective on changes that have occurred in the wav families with working mothers arrange for the care of their children.

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¹ Marjorie Lueck, Ann Orr, and Martin O'Connell, Current Population Reports, P23-117, Trends in Child Care Arrangements of Working Mothers; Martin O'Connell and Carolyn Rogers, Current Population Reports, P23-129, Child Care Arrangements of Working Mothers: June 1982.

² Martin O'Connell and Amara Bachu, Current Population Reports, P70-9, Who's Minding the Kids? Child Care Arrangements: Winter 1984-85; Martin O'Connell and Amara Bachu, Current Population Reports, P70-20, Who's Minding the Kids? Child Care Arrangements: 1986-87; Martin O'Connell and Amara Bachu, Current Population Reports, P70-30, Who's Minding the Kids? Child Care Arrangements: Fall 1988.