How many children (under 18) lost one or both parents in the WTC disaster?

I have heard the figure 10,000 orphans, but orphans is overly
resrictive, and that figure is clearly way too high.  Census data
shows that the general population has about twice as many adults 18-65
as children under 18.  If we lost 3000 adults at the WTC, can we say
that about 1500 children lost a parent?

Estimates of the number of children who lost a parent in the World
Trade Center are all over the map, ranging up to 40,000. Several
reputable sources (including a document posted on the official White
House website) place the number in the vicinity of 2,000 to 3,000. If
I had to choose a figure, I'd go with that.

I have gathered some material that I hope you'll find useful.

"Approximately 2,000 children lost a parent on September 11, including
146 children who lost a parent in the Pentagon attacks."

The White House: The Global War on Terrorism
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/12/100dayreport.pdf

"There is no official tally of the children who lost a mother or
father in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon and aboard the hijacked airliner that crashed in a
Pennsylvania field. The Twin Towers Orphan Fund estimates that there
are at least 2,000, including several hundred who lost the only parent
they'd ever known. New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani says as many as 10,000
children might have lost a parent. But whatever the actual number, a
litany of loss is being recited from Virginia to New Jersey to
California."

USA Today: An agonizing road for kids of Sept. 11
http://www.usatoday.com/news/sept11/2001/10/19/kids-usatcov.htm

"On September 11, 2001, as many as 15,000 children in the New York
City metropolitan region may have lost a parent in the terrorist
attack on the World Trade Center."

Aon Corporation: Support Services
http://www.aon.com/wtc/support_services.jsp

"The number of children who lost a parent in the Sept. 11 attack is
not known, but the bond firm Cantor Fitzgerald alone estimates its
more than 650 victims left 1,300 children. At the Fire Department,
which lost 343 people, more than 600 children were left without a
parent. Hundreds more have not been counted."

SouthCoast Today: Children of trade center victims come to terms with grief
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/daily/01-02/01-22-02/a02wn008.htm 

"From the Cantor Fitzgerald bond-trading firm alone, the estimate is
staggering: 1,500. Not the number of victims.

The children they left behind. 
 
No list has been compiled of children who lost a father or mother at
the World Trade Center or the Pentagon, or on the four planes that
terrorists took to fiery ends. But the number of bereft youngsters
will probably stretch well into the thousands."

Houston Chronicle
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/terror/aftermath/1058507

"An article pointed out by Instapundit says of the WTC attack: 'That
operation was successful. Thousands, not hundreds, of civilians were
killed; the estimate in New York is that 30,000 to 40,000 children
lost a parent in the attack on the World Trade Centre.'

But the Twin Towers Orphan Fund says the latest numbers point to
numbers around 2,800 kids tragically affected. That's bad enough -
there's no need for bogus hyperinflation of these statistics to
explain American anger."

Keynes Blog 23.2.02   
http://keynes.blogspot.com/2002_02_17_keynes_archive.html

"Bereaved children of the 11 September attacks have 'fallen under the
radar' when it comes to long-term care, despite the huge sums of money
raised for families, say clinical psychologists responsible for
treating them on the eve of this third anniversary.
 
Two-thirds of all firefighters who died on 9/11 lived in Long Island 
'Until very recently for example, no-one knew how many children were
actually bereaved,' said Dr Claude Chemtob, of the trauma recovery
programme at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.

His unit has calculated that some 2,990 children lost a parent up to
the age of 18. Almost 100 of them are babies born after the World
Trade Center disaster."

BBC News: Helping the children of 9/11
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3643984.stm

"Perhaps the only useful generalization to make is a statistical one:
there are about 3,051 children who lost a parent, according to a
Newsday analysis last year, 2,172 of whom were 17 or younger that
day."

NY Newsday: 9/11 Children's Journeys of Grief
http://www.nynewsday.com/nyc-epkids0907,0,2566748.story?coll=nyc-topheadlines-left

Google Search Strategy: 

Google Web Search: "1000..50000 children" + "lost a parent" + "world trade center"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%221000..50000+children%22+%22lost+a+parent%22+%22world+trade+center%22

I hope this will be helpful. If anything is unclear or incomplete, or
if a link doesn't work for you, please request clarification; I'll
gladly offer further assistance before you rate my answer.

Best regards,
pinkfreud

A very thorough reply.  Thanks.  I actually thought an actual count
had been made by the Victims Compensation Fund.  I guess not.