Census: 20 percent of U.S. filled out surveys so far

The Bismarck Tribune
March 25, 2010

WASHINGTON (AP) - Roughly 100 million households to go.

One week after U.S. census forms were mailed to 120 million households, about 20 percent of the nation has completed those forms and sent them back. That number puts the government on its way to matching or surpassing mail participation rates in 2000 of 72 percent, the Census Bureau said Wednesday.

The figures are part of daily data the bureau is publishing on 2010 mail-back participation for the U.S., broken down by state, county, city and zip code. Officials are hoping that state and local governments will use the data to promote friendly competitions as to who can get the best response by the end of the census mail-back period in late April.

Montana, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri and South Dakota ranked at the top, with participation rates of between 31-33 percent. These states have rural areas that were hand-delivered forms earlier in the month, so people there had a longer period to respond.

Broken down by city, places in Iowa, Nebraska and Minnesota dominated the top 50.

At the other end of the scale, Florida ranked at the bottom among states, with just 9 percent of households returning their form.