When it comes to returning Census 2010 forms, Wisconsin is tied for No. 1.
Sixty-two percent of households in Wisconsin and South Dakota that received the questionnaires returned them ahead of Thursday's Census Day, according to data compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau.
The count is hitting a key stretch with the 134 million questionnaires that were mailed out or hand delivered earlier this month due to be returned Thursday.
More than half the nation's households have returned the forms, according to the Census Bureau.
Ranking behind Wisconsin and South Dakota among the top six states are Nebraska (61%), North Dakota (61%), Minnesota (60%) and Iowa (60%).
While the overall response rate in Wisconsin is high, there are some cities that still have work to do.
In Milwaukee, 47% of households have returned forms, but there are several neighborhoods where poverty runs high and the response rates remain low. Fewer than one in three households have returned forms in some areas of the city.
"There are going to be some other big pushes" to increase the response rate, said Sharon Robinson, the chair of Milwaukee's Complete Count Committee. "In the month of April, we'll see more forms come in. It's not too late to return forms. But this still motivates us to be aggressive to get out the message."
Those households that don't return forms will be canvassed by Census enumerators.
The Census, conducted once every 10 years, provides the count of every person in the country. The results are used to apportion congressional districts and divvy up hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funds.
"We're off to a great start, but we still have a ways to go before getting a complete count of the nation," Census Bureau Director Robert Groves said Wednesday in a prepared statement. "If everyone in the nation took the 10 minutes needed to fill out and mail back their 2010 Census form, we could cut the cost of conducting the census by $1.5 billion."
Among Wisconsin cities with high participation rates are: Manitowoc (70%), West Bend (69%), Franklin (68%), Oak Creek (65%), Waukesha (63%), Oshkosh (63%), Green Bay (63%), Appleton (62%), Janesville (62%) and West Allis (62%).
The residents of Dickeyville, population 1,055, are doing their part to boost participation, with 77% of households returning the forms. That puts Dickeyville, a village in the state's southwestern corner near the Mississippi River, among the national leaders.
"That's awesome," said Amy Ginter, a village trustee and branch manager of a local bank.
Ginter said there was no organized campaign in Dickeyville to complete the forms.
"I just think the people of Dickeyville feel that it's important to get the numbers out there, get a true count of what's going on and how many people there are here," she said.
Just up the road from Dickeyville, in the village of Potosi, 79% of households have returned the forms. The village has 715 residents.
Village manager Frank Fiorenza was part of a complete count committee in Grant County. He said letters were sent to every resident of his community through a school newsletter and were mailed with water bills.
"Apparently, it paid a dividend," he said. "It was extremely important for us to get as much of an accurate count as we could, to see that Grant County, Wisconsin, and our local community receive its fair share."