Census began this week in rural areas, where counting residents is inherently problematic

About 56,000 workers for the Census Bureau began hand-delivering census forms Monday to rural residents at about 12 million addresses across the U.S. The forms for rural residents are being distributed two weeks before mailing of surveys to urban areas because of problems inherent in counting rural residents. Irregular addresses and more travel time between addresses are two of the issues that rural census-takers must address.

Joe Quartullo, area manager at the Philadelphia Regional Census Center, told The Baltimore Sun: "There are challenges in rural areas and urban areas." Language barriers, for example, tend to be more of a problem in urban neighborhoods, but travel time between addresses is greater for rural areas.