Wisconsin is currently the No. 1 state in the country for census form returns, according to numbers from the United States Census Bureau.
Seventy-two percent of Wisconsin households have returned their census forms as of Monday. The two next states are Iowa at 70 percent and Minnesota at 69 percent, with the national return rate being 60 percent.
The Midwest — Wisconsin in particular — have always had a very good response rate for the census, Census Bureau spokesperson Stephen Buckner said.
“They’re very civically engaged and they see this as part of their responsibility living here as a citizen,” Buckner said.
It is not only the state itself that had been successful at form return, but also individual cities. Four Wisconsin cities rank in the top 50 cities in the nation of 500,000 people or more for census form return.
Eau Claire ranks 18th, with a 74 percent return rate, followed by Appleton at 27th, Oshkosh at 34th and Waukesha at 37th, all at 73 percent. In Madison, 70 percent of households have returned their census.
Buckner said the census is important because it influences an area’s political representation in Congress, as well as which states will receive part of the $400 billion in federal funds that are re-distributed every year back to state and local governments.
Taxpayers can also save money by mailing in the forms on time, Buckner added. For an individual to mail in the form costs about 42 cents, but for Census officials to follow-up on a household that has not returned the form, it costs $57.
For every one percentage point of increase in form return, the government saves $85 million. If every single person in the country mailed in their form on time, the country would save $2.5 billion dollars, according to Buckner.
Buckner added there are no predictions at this point for huge demographic shifts in the country; however, one trend officials will be looking at for this census is the number of people marking down more than one race on the census form.
People have three more weeks to mail back the census, Buckner added, and the Bureau will also be sending out replacement forms to low-response households and areas in the coming weeks.
