California lags behind after National Census Day, with only 49 percent of California residents turning in their forms, compared
to the 52 percent average throughout the U.S.

National Census Day was created by the government as part of the national campaign to encourage residents to turn in census forms early, but had a less than stellar response in California. East Los Angeles had only 38 percent of census forms returned.

Some members of the census campaign feel that many Hispanics in California are hesitant to return the forms for fear the information will be shared with immigration authorities.

In order to combat that fear, a Spanish census campaign was started among entertainers, newscasters, activist groups and other prominent Latinos to encourage everyone to contribute to the census regardless of their legal status.

According to a survey by the Pew Hispanic Center, recent immigrants are more likely to participate in the census than those born in the U.S.

The researchers found that foreign-born Hispanics are less skeptical and have more confidence that the information they share in the census will remain confidential.

Around 90 percent of immigrants reported they had turned in their census forms or planned to do so, while only 78 percent of Hispanics born in the U.S. intended to turn in their forms.

Preliminary census data estimates that the foreign-born population of California will fall to around 26.6 percent this year, the third consecutive year of decreasing percentages after a half century of steadily climbing numbers.

The peak of foreign-born residents was 27.4 percent in 2007, but recent economic instability and increased immigration regulations may be responsible for the decreasing number of immigrants, according to a University of Southern California study released Wednesday.

Hispanics are not the only group census administrators are having trouble counting.

Around 7,000 homeless people were counted in Santa Clara County by grassroots groups recruited by 300 Census Bureau outreach specialists in Northern California.

People who do not have addresses, have language barriers or are reluctant to turn in forms pose a special challenge to census takers, but Latino and Asian community activists volunteered to go door-to-door and persuade residents to participate in Santa Clara County.

The census will be taken in person from those residents who did not turn in their forms by Thursday.