Cedar County town leads the state in Census returns

DENVER — St. Helena leads the state when it comes to filling out and returning the 2020 census forms.

A U.S. Census Dept. report issued this week shows that 79. 5 percent of St. Helena residents have already completed the census form.

Hartington ranks 21st on the statewide list with 64.4 percent of people with a 68739 zip code returning the census. The report indicates that 15.6 percent of the reports returned from Hartington were returned via the Internet. Laurel was 190th on the list with 50.5 percent of residents returning their Census forms to date.

Cedar County as a whole doesn’t rank so well, though. The latest report ranks Cedar County’s census return rate 42nd in the state out of Nebraska’s 93 counties. The report indicates 56.1 percent of county residents have already returned the census.

Sarpy County, which mainly consists of Offutt Air Force and several suburbs just south of Omaha, leads the state with a 64.9 percent return rate.

Seward County, which is located directly west of Lincoln, is second in the state with a 64.4 percent return rate.

Nebraska has the third highest response rate in the country with 56.5 percent of state residents filling out and returning the census to date.

Minnesota leads the nation with a 60.2 percent return rate, while Iowa is just ahead of Nebraska with a 56.6 return rate.

The country has reached an important milestone in the 2020 Census.

Half of all of the households in the country – 74.3 million - have responded to date.

Responding to the census has never been easier, census officials say.

The census can be filled out online at 2020census.gov, over the phone, or by mail.

Invitations to respond to the 2020 Census were delivered last month. About 64 million households across the nation were recently sent a paper questionnaire.