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Counting the Counties

Only three states — Louisiana, New Mexico and Alaska — are returning the census form at lower rates than Texas. But two dozen Texas counties are outperforming the national average, according to our interactive map.

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Texas continues to lag behind other states in its response U.S. census mail questionnaire, but the rate varies widely by region, according to the latest figures.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the bureau had received responses from 56 percent of Texas households, compared with 62 percent of households that have responded nationally. But residents in more than two dozen Texas counties have been more responsive than both the state and national rates, according to the latest data, which you can explore using our interactive state map

Only three states — Louisiana, New Mexico and Alaska — are returning the 10-question form at a lower rate than Texas, which ties Hawaii, Oklahoma and New York.

In an effort to save money, the bureau is now mailing about 40 million replacement questionnaires to low-response neighborhoods. The bureau believes it can improve the response rate by 7 to 10 percentage points nationwide. If true, that could save taxpayers as much as $500 million. (It costs about 42 cents to collect the information by mail and about $57 if the bureau has to physically visit a household). That process begins next week, though some bureau workers are already counting homeless residents in Texas.

Here's a list of the top 10 responders:

County2000 rate2010 rate
Baylor 51%
71%
Clay 69% 67%
Rockwall 74% 67%
Garza 69% 66%
Hood 66% 66%
Wichita 76% 66%
Montague 63% 65%
Parker 73% 65%
Randall 77% 65%
Runnels 70% 65%

 

And the bottom 10:

County2000 rate2010 rate
Sabine 42%
36%
Duval 47% 35%
Jim Hogg 74% 35%
King 50% 35%
Hudspeth No Data 32%
Kenedy 38% 31%
La Salle 57% 30%
Real 46% 28%
Edwards 45% 27%
Zapata 38% 19%

 

Check out how your county performed on our interactive map.

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