Census forms are arriving in mailboxes this month nationwide, though about 12 million addresses across the nation, including some in Warren County, may receive them in person from census workers and get help in completing forms.

As is standard practice, 56,000 U.S. Census Bureau employees began hand-delivering 2010 Census questionnaires in rural areas nationwide, including spots within the county but far outside Vicksburg city limits. Deliveries of questionnaires packaged in plastic bags are being delivered to about 300,000 households in south Mississippi, southeast Louisiana and east Texas whose counts are expected to change since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in an effort to accurately gauge the U.S. population.

“Regardless of whether your census form gets dropped off at your front door or you receive it within a few weeks in your mailbox, it’s important that you fill it out and mail it back as soon as possible,” Census Bureau Director Robert M. Groves said in a release. “With only 10 questions, the 2010 Census should only take about 10 minutes to complete.”

The 2010 survey will ask a person’s name, sex, age, date of birth, race, ethnicity, relationship and housing tenure — a shorter form than 2000, when socioeconomic factors appeared on the survey.

Citizens in need of help filling out forms may visit assistance centers in each county, including in Vicksburg. An assistance center opened this month at the City Hall Annex on Walnut Street, said Kelvin Rankin, a Census Bureau Partnership Specialist working with the local Complete Count Committee. Census personnel will staff the center daily through April from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

About 72 percent of the U.S. population mailed back their census forms in 2000, a higher participation rate than in the previous 30 years. Warren County’s return rate 10 years ago was 71 percent, higher than the 66 percent statewide rate.

U.S. population counts have taken place every 10 years since 1790, with each shift affecting representation in Congress and federal funding for a multitude of projects and entities, from infrastructure and social programs to certain types of tax revenue distribution.

Warren County had 49,644 citizens in 2000, which was up nearly 2,000 from 1990. Slight drops have been recorded in bureau estimates since, most recently at 48,087 in 2008. Inside Vicksburg, the count was 26,407 in 2000, up nearly 5,500 from 1990. The 2008 estimate had the municipal population at 24,974.

Mississippi lost a U.S. House seat in the 2000 Census. The state’s population stood at about 2.9 million in recent estimates.

Contact Danny Barrett Jr. at dbarrett@vicksburgpost.com