Latinos living in Indiana who need a Spanish-language form to be able to comply with the U.S. Census Bureau's population count next year will have to take the initiative to ask for the form.

That fact has some state government officials and Latino activists upset, saying they think it will complicate efforts to increase the percentage of Latinos who cooperate with the 2010 attempt to count the nation's population.

"If they want to count us, they have to reach out to us," said Alicia Rios, the Midwest vice president for the League of United Latin American Citizens.

Rios' group will cooperate with Indiana state officials to try to persuade the Census Bureau to reconsider its decision that Indiana's Latino population of 4.9 percent is too small for anyone to automatically be sent a Spanish-language census form.

"We're small compared to states like Texas and California. But we're broad in certain areas of the state," said Rios, who cited Lake, Marion and St. Joseph counties as places with significant Latino populations.

"Not only that, but there are Latinos in every county of Indiana," she said.

According to Census Bureau reports, the agency, which is a division of the Commerce Department, has been studying the nation by using data from the American Community Survey for the period between 2002 and 2008 to determine which parts of the United States have substantial Spanish-only populations.

Places where at least 20 percent of the local population relies on Spanish qualify for the Spanish-language form to be sent automatically.

People in other parts of the U.S. also can receive the Spanish-language form, but only if they request it before the federal government mails them out in late March.

Census officials say they expect next year to send out about 14 million forms in Spanish across the nation.

Pat Sanchez, the executive director for the Indiana Commission on Hispanic/Latino Affairs, said she hopes her state agency can work with activists to persuade the federal government to distribute the Spanish-language forms more widely in Indiana.

Sanchez plans to bring the issue up when ceremonies are held Sept. 19 at the Statehouse in Indianapolis to kick off Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations. "We're going to launch this campaign in coming weeks," she said.

Census media specialist Muriel Jackson would not comment on whether Indiana officials would be able to persuade the federal government to change its policy.

But she noted the Census Bureau has "language guides" available in 70 other languages to help people comprehend the English-language census form.

"We are trying to accommodate people of many languages, so they can complete the census," Jackson said.