So Far, Dallas (And Much of Texas) Hasn't Been Very Good About Sending in Census

Today, Census Bureau Director Robert Groves sent out a press release urging Texans to send back their 2010 Census forms. Because, according to the numbers, most of the state's major cities are lagging well behind the national average of a 46-percent return rate. Brownsville (at 25 percent) ranks last, followed...

By Robert Wilonsky

March 30, 2010

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Today, Census Bureau Director Robert Groves sent out a press release urging Texans to send back their 2010 Census forms. Because, according to the numbers, most of the state's major cities are lagging well behind the national average of a 46-percent return rate. Brownsville (at 25 percent) ranks last, followed by Laredo (at 27 percent), Austin and Houston (both at 33 percent) and San Antonio (at 37 percent).

Dallas didn't get called out in the press release, which seems a little odd: According to the bureau's Take 10 map, Dallas so far is tied with San Antone at 37 percent -- which is, thus far, 27 percent below the city's 2000 return rate. Says Groves, "We're concerned about the relatively low response from parts of Texas. Every household that fails to send back their census form by mail must be visited by a census taker starting in May -- at a significant taxpayer cost. The easiest and best way to be counted in the census is to fill out and return your form by mail."

Don't make Robert Groves come to your house and play this over and over and over and over. Because he'll do it.

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