Skepticism of government limits response to census in rural Texas

"Getting rural Texans to mail back their census forms is much tougher compared with their urban counterparts," reports Eric Aasen of The Dallas Morning News. Major urban and suburban counties have response rates around 65 percent, "while rural counties often had response rates below 55 percent," and some around 40 percent.

"Residents in the country say they’re skeptical of government," Aasen reports. "They either have no interest in filling out the forms or are answering just some of the census questions. Others in rural areas are simply hard to find. And residents near the Mexican border face language barriers or are afraid of divulging information."

The Census Bureau Web site says Texas is one of the least responsive states so far, with only 27 percent of census forms mailed back as of today. The national figure was 34 percent. (Read more) To track your community's response rate through a page on the site, click here.