An initial statistical model for estimating the number of street children in cities, countries, and throughout the world

Within the research community dealing with street children, there is an acute awareness of the need to update the categorizations of street children and to develop unified models for estimations of their numbers at different levels. In this article, we set out to develop an initial multi-level model that would enable researchers to make sound estimates of the number of street children at three levels. For the level of individual cities, we present a capture-recapture approach, which was specially adjusted for the area of street children. For the level of individual countries, we offer clear guidelines on how to construct viable national samples of cities building on the approach developed by the Global Urban Observatory (2016). Finally, we build on the approach we proposed in a previous study and present a statistical model that enables researchers to make global estimates of the number of street children. Since this is the first holistic statistical model that builds on clear and unified procedures from the grassroots level to the level of the entire world, we call it an initial model and we expect it to be further developed and refined in the future.