Enlarge photo by: Census Bureau

The U.S. Census Bureau today updated its data on how many households had returned the decennial questionnaire. Texas is still seven percentage points behind the national rate — ahead of only Mississippi and Alaska. 

The U.S. Census Bureau recently launched an interactive map that makes it easy to track participation in the decennial count of households. The map application, which relies on the Google Maps API, visualizes the participation rates by color — orange for higher rates, and blue for lower rates.

Seven Texas counties — Rockwall, Williamson, Collin, Hays, Fort Bend, Montgomery and Denton — are listed among the nation's 30 fastest growing areas, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates released today. They also voted for John McCain in the 2008 presidential race.

State agencies have received nearly one million requests under the Texas Public Information Act since September. 

Yesterday, Google formally announced its public data explorer, a cool new tool allowing anyone to make visualizations of government records and post them as embeds online. 

This week, most mailboxes across Texas will get a notice from the U.S. Census Bureau. The message: Participate in the decennial count, which begins next week. 

Use our simple new data application to scan $150 million in campaign fundraising and spending by the major-party candidates on today's ballot.