With the last few mail-in Census forms coming in (at a robust 72% participation rate nation-wide), over 630,000 census-takers are now fanning out to count households that haven responded. And individual states are finding their own unique ways to reach those last few residents:

Behind the scenes, the federal government placed a greater emphasis on partnering with local organizations to get the message out. State and local governments have used a similar approach. Stacey Cumberbach, the head of New York City’s 2010 census office, says working with trusted leaders in different communities and across city government has helped the city boost its mail-in rates from 57 percent a decade ago to 60 percent this year. (…)

In Minnesota, [state demographer Tom] Gillaspy took advantage of a few other opportunities offered for the first time by the Census Bureau. In February, the state compared the numbers of addresses it had on its list for every block against the census’ count. Where there were big differences, the state asked the Census Bureau to double check its list of addresses.

Later this summer, Minnesota officials plan to compare state data for the capacity of group quarters — including prisons, nursing homes, halfway homes and dormitories — against the population count the census came up with in those facilities. If there’s a large difference, the Census Bureau will go back to recount the population there.

The stakes are higher in Minnesota than elsewhere, as the latest projections indicate Minnesota could keep or lose one of its congressional districts by as few as 1,000 residents.

But the Census is important for every community – each individual left uncounted costs his or her local government thousands of dollars that would have gone to support schools, police and fire protection, and a whole host of other essential services.

And of course, a complete Census count will be critical as states begin re-drawing congressional and legislative districts in 2011.