How Much Does Your State Spend On Welfare Programs?

It’s pretty difficult to find an accurate number as to how much we spend on welfare programs in America.  According to the Census Bureau it was $637 billion in 2016.  And according to this article which sources usgovernmentspending.com information it was $738 billion in 2018. 

There are six major welfare programs in the United States at the Federal level. They are:

• Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs (SNAP)
• Medicaid
• Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
• Earned Income Tax Credit
• Supplemental Security Income
• Housing Assistance

I found some data on these programs by state and fired up my magic mapping machine, so let’s dive in.  (Note: All maps are clickable for a larger version)

This first map shows the total welfare expenditures by state from the 2016 Census Bureau data.  That was the most recent I could find which included all welfare types divided out by state. 

 

 

As always I do this stuff to seek out geographic patterns. In this case the midwest/grain belt and the Southeast show lower welfare distributions, while the Northeast and parts of Appalachia are higher, with another high cluster in the upper mid-west.

The five states that spend the lowest on welfare per capita are:

• Georgia – $1,102
• Utah – $1,123
• Florida – $1,243
• South Dakota – $1,247
• Texas – $1,263

The five states that spend the highest on welfare per capita are: 

• New York – $3,372
• Alaska – $2,983
• Massachusetts – $2,883
• Vermont – $2,874 
• Minnesota $2,780

 

SNAP

Let’s look at SNAP, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs.  SNAP is what was referred to as “food stamps” in the old days.  I found some good recent data on SNAP participants as of May 2019 and normalized the numbers by state population. 

Here’s what it looks like: 

Patterns that appear: The southeast is particularly reliant on SNAP and the western plains states into the Rockies and up to Idaho are not.

The five states with the lowest percentage of citizens on SNAP are:

• Wyoming – 4.31%
• Utah – 5.15%
• New Hampshire – 5.42%
• North Dakota – 6.32%
• Kansas – 6.81% 

The five states with the highest percentage of citizens on SNAP are: 

• New Mexico – 21.49%
• Louisiana – 17.14%
• West Virginia – 17.04%
• Mississippi – 14.85%  
• Alabama – 14.73%

If you really want to geek out on SNAP by geography, usafacts.org has a great interactive map showing recipients by county as well as changes over time.

 

Medicaid

Medicaid is a federal and state program that provides health care benefits to low income individuals who meet certain eligibility requirements.  To receive Medicaid benefits you generally must have a low income but you must also meet a covered group, meaning you must fall into an approved category for coverage (i.e. pregnant women, low income senior, etc). 

I pulled data from the Medicaid website about the number of people enrolled in Medicaid in each state.  These numbers include both Medicaid and CHIP.  CHIP stands for the Children’s Health Insurance Programs and is an insurance program that provides low-cost health coverage to children in families that earn too much money to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to buy private insurance. 

Here’s the map:

 

The main geographic pattern that stands out to me is the very consistent numbers in the grain bet, namely Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota.  And another homogeneous area of consistent values in the upper midwest and Great Lakes area.  I’m also surprised at the low number for Florida considering the age of the states’ population.

The five states with the lowest percentage of citizens enrolled in Medicaid are:

• Wyoming – 9.22%
• Utah – 9.55%
• North Dakota – 11.78% 
• South Dakota – 12.44%
• Nebraska – 12.55% 

The five states with the highest percentage of citizens enrolled in Medicaid are: 

• Washington D.C. – 39.89%
• New Mexico – 35.04%
• New York – 33.31%
• Louisiana – 30.04%  
• Alaska – 29.88%

Notice that Utah, Wyoming, and North Dakota are in the lowest three again.

Medicaid expansion is a provision in the ACA which expands Medicaid eligibility to cover more low income Americans.  Specifically, it extends Medicaid coverage to those making up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level ($16,753 a year for an individual or $34,638 for a family of four).

Here is a map showing the states that have and have not extended Medicaid benefits as of November 2018:

 

Of note, Nebraska has adopted Medicaid expansion but not yet implemented it.

 

Temporary Assistance For Needy Families (TANF)

The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program provides grant funds to states to provide families with financial assistance and related support services.  To qualify for this benefit program the applicant must be either pregnant or responsible for a child under 19 years of age. 

I found some mapped data for the TNAF program, so no need to reinvent the wheel:

 

Earned Income Tax Credit

From the IRS:

The Earned Income Tax Credit, EITC or EIC, is a benefit for working people with low to moderate income. To qualify, you must meet certain requirements and file a tax return, even if you do not owe any tax or are not required to file. EITC reduces the amount of tax you owe and may give you a refund.

There are two main types of EITCs, refundable and non refundable.  Both refundable and nonrefundable credits get subtracted from a qualified taxpayers taxes.  If a refundable credit exceeds the amount the taxpayer owes, the difference is paid as a refund.  If a nonrefundable credit exceeds the amount the taxpayer owes, the excess is lost. 

Here’s a map of states that have refundable or nonrefundable EITCs, or no EITC at all.

 

Supplemental Security Income

Supplemental Security Income is a United States federal welfare program that provides cash assistance to individuals who are either aged 65 or older, blind, or disabled.  SSI was created by the Social Security Amendments of 1972, but is funded by general tax revenues (not Social Security taxes). 

I found some great data from the Social Security Administration on the SSI program by state, but it was not mapped.  So of course I remedied that situation with my magical psychedelic mapping machine:

The obvious big pattern is the large area in the upper midwest extending to the Rocky Mountain states that has relatively lower percentages of people receiving SSI.  Also the higher percentage band that goes through Appalachia and into the deep South. 

The five states with the lowest percentage of citizens receiving SSI are:

• Utah – 0.98%
• North Dakota – 1.10%
• Wyoming – 1.19%
• Colorado – 1.28% 
• New Hampshire – 1.37% 

The five states with the highest percentage of citizens receiving SSI are: 

• Washington D.C. – 4.07%
• West Virginia – 4.00%
• Mississippi – 3.92%
• Kentucky – 3.90%  
• Louisiana – 3.76%

 

Housing Assistance

Section 8 of the Housing Act of 1937, often called Section 8, authorizes the payment of rental housing assistance to private landlords on behalf of low income households.  Approximately 5.2 million American Households received rental assistance in 2018, and of those approximately 1.2 million received a Section 8 based voucher. 

I was able to find data detailing the number of HUD-subsidized units available in each state.  Again, it was not mapped.  Again, yeah, you know…

 

I didn’t want to show just the number of total units, since of course a populous state like California will have way more than say Wyoming and the resulting numbers wouldn’t mean much.  But I also couldn’t divide the number of units by total people since everyone does not need a house and the resulting numbers would be very small. 

I decided to normalize the data by how many units are available per 100 people in each state.  My blog, my rules 🙂  It could be done other ways.  This at least gives you an idea of the availability of subsidized units as compared to each sates respective population. 

The main pattern I see here is the entire east part of the country has a higher number per person than the west in general.

The five states with the lowest number of HUD-subsidized units per 100 people are:

• Arizona – 0.56
• Utah – 0.59
• Idaho – 0.71
• Nevada – 0.77
• Florida – 0.91 

The five states with the highest number of HUD-subsidized units per 100 people are: 

• Washington D.C. – 5.44
• Rhode Island – 3.59
• New York – 3.05
• Massachusetts – 2.84
• Connecticut – 2.34  

 

Conclusion

Wow, if you made it this far you’re either a map nerd or you’re really interested in our public welfare systems, or both.  So that’s the six major welfare programs in America and some geographic data about each. 

I’ve done lots of other geographic-based posts showing various aspects of money and finance from a location perspective.  Be sure to check out my Geoarbitrage Resources Page that has tons of great tools to help you find your perfect location.

I hope you find these resources handy and I will continue to expose valuable tools that can help when deciding on a geoarbitrage strategy. 

Your turn – I love comments and I’d love to hear from both map nerds and normal, well-grounded people, so chime in below!