Estimating the Number of Homeless People Living in Hungary between 1999 and 2011

Abstract

The high variability in the estimates of the number of homeless people living in Hungary suggested a review of recent methods and possible data sources. After verifying the models fitted by Dávid and Snijders (2002), those and various other models were applied to a wider range of data compiled between 1999 and 2011 in Hungary, thus estimating the number of homeless people over the last decade. The limitations of the models were obvious: more frequent and extended data collection would be favourable to produce reliable estimates, and a robust design (mixture of closed and open population model) could be used to fine-tune the results.