Wisconsin is leading the nation in census form return, according to the United States Census Bureau.

The five states with the highest rate of form return are all in the Midwest, and Wisconsin is at the top, with 81 percent of households in the state returning their forms. Minnesota is a close second with 80 percent, followed by Iowa and Indiana at 78 percent.

Alaska is the state with the lowest rate of form return, at 62 percent.

The national rate of census form return is 72 percent, which is the same as in 2000. Census staff will now begin the process of going door-to-door to obtain information from households that have not returned their forms.

Wisconsin also had five cities that were in the top 50 in the nation in form return with populations over 50,000. Appleton and Eau Claire both had 85 percent of households returning their census forms, with Oshkosh, Green Bay and La Crosse also ranking, at 84, 83 and 82 percent respectively. The city of Madison has an 80 percent census return rate, which is 1 percent lower than their 2000 rate.

?It’s fantastic news to hear that the state is highly ranked for form return,? said University of Wisconsin spokesperson John Lucas in an email to The Badger Herald. ?We [thank] students, faculty and staff who took it seriously and sent theirs in. In particular, Housing residents did a particularly good job in helping out.?

Lucas added he was told that 85 percent of UW housing residents turned their forms in. Even though Wisconsin’s rate is already high, people can help raise it even further by work ing with census representatives who are in the community to aid those who have not yet return their forms.

Census Bureau spokesperson Stephen Buckner previously told The Badger Herald people who mail back their forms on time save a lot of taxpayer money, as it costs $57 for census staff to follow up on a household that has not returned its form. The country would save $2.5 billion dollars if every person mailed back their form on time.