How many Americans receive welfare benefits? And which states have the most people on welfare? It depends on how you measure.
The number of welfare recipients can be quantified by using a three-legged stool approach with the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. The figure is measured by determining the number of people who live below the poverty line and can be assumed to receive some form of cash assistance; the number of individuals or households that receive benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps; and the number of people who obtain coverage under Medicaid, the federal-state program that provides health insurance.
The Census Bureau collects other data that may be appropriate for such an endeavor, such as the number of people who receive benefits under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, the federal successor to direct-cash payments that were significantly curbed by 1996 legislation. Those numbers, however, are dwarfed by the sheer size of the number of Americans who live under the poverty line, collect SNAP benefits, or participate in the Medicaid program. Consider:
The 2019-23 American Community Survey found 40.39 million Americans, or 12.4 percent, reported income below the poverty line, set in 2023 at $14,580 for individuals and $30,000 for a family of four.
- The 2019-23 American Community Survey found 40.39 million Americans, or 12.4 percent, reported income below the poverty line, set in 2023 at $14,580 for individuals and $30,000 for a family of four.
- The survey reported 16.3 million of the nation’s 127.5 million households – 12.8 percent – received either cash assistance or SNAP benefits.
- Almost 67.7 million Americans, or 20.7 percent, got health insurance through Medicaid, according to the 2019-23 ACS.
Poverty Level as a Gauge for Measuring How Many People Are on Welfare
According to Social Explorer’s table A13005, Poverty Status in the Past 12 Months by Sex, there were 40,390,045 people living below the poverty line in 2023. Slightly more than 18 million (5.6 percent) were male; another 22.4 million (6.9 percent) were female.
Welfare is based on the presumption that it provides assistance to poor households, since the largest programs, such as SNAP and Medicaid, are means-tested, e.g., eligibility is determined by income. Although not all people living below the poverty line will have the ability or (in some cases such as work requirements) inclination to receive welfare benefits, the number of poor people is generally accepted as a proxy for determining how many people are on welfare.
A simple examination of the data in table form shows that the greatest percentage of individuals below the poverty line occurs in Mississippi; the smallest, in New Hampshire:
Similar queries using the 2019-23 ACS can also be used to produce results for individual congressional districts, counties, places (i.e., cities and towns), and zip codes (using single-year ACS estimates will only yield results for geographies with more than 65,000 people). Shown is a map of families below the poverty level by county, taken from the latest five-year ACS estimate:
Another important caveat in using poverty as a proxy for assessing the number of welfare recipients in a state is the extremely problematic nature of how the United States calculates poverty. The current figure is based on a methodology developed in 1963 and focuses primarily on food costs. It fails to take regional economic variations into account, such as cost-of-living differences between San Francisco and rural Alabama, or the costs of housing, child care, transportation, and health care, among other omissions.
Determining Which States Have the Most People on Welfare via SNAP Benefits
A more reliable gauge of the prevalence of welfare beneficiaries in a state is the number of people who receive SNAP benefits. Formerly known as food stamps, these are generally issued via electronic benefits transfer (EBT) cards that are accepted at more than 250,000 authorized retailers.
Given the importance of food in the Maslovian hierarchy, the number of SNAP beneficiaries can be a more accurate measure of welfare participation than a simple poverty figure. Income limits for participation in the program also is a slightly better proxy for measuring welfare beneficiaries since the minimum income levels (i.e., gross annual income of $19,584) tend to exceed the poverty line.
Table B19058 from the 2019-23 American Community Survey provides an overview of the number of SNAP recipients and can be customized to different geographies, such as state-level figures, in order to answer the question, "Which states have the most people on welfare?"
A brief review of Table B19058 shows little geographic correlation between poverty and food stamp participation. Mississippi has the highest poverty rate, but New Mexico has the greatest percentage of SNAP recipients; New Hampshire, the lowest poverty rate, but Wyoming, the lowest percentage of SNAP recipients.
A more fine-grained examination of the data, however, infers a greater correlation between poverty and SNAP participation exists at a county level:
As with any measurement concerning welfare, caveats exist. Key among those caveats is the political leaning of individual states. Conservative states, for example, are more likely than others to create barriers to participation in the SNAP program, since states are responsible for administering the program and determining eligibility. While able-bodied adults without dependents are generally required to work to receive SNAP benefits, a dozen states have waived the requirement, and 22 states have created waivers for individuals living in certain areas.
Medicaid Participation as an Indicator of How Many People Are on Welfare in a State
Even more than SNAP participation, registration in the Medicaid program may be an excellent gauge of which states have the most people on welfare. Medicaid was created in 1965, when the average annual cost of health care for an individual was $208. The figure rose to $12,530 by 2020 – a 5,924 percent increase, roughly eight times the rate of inflation.
A review of Census Table C27007, Medicaid/Means-Tested Public Coverage By Sex By Age, with some modest calculations demonstrates a greater correlation with SNAP than with overall poverty levels. New Mexico has both the greatest percentage of SNAP recipients and Medicaid participants; while Wyoming has the lowest percentage of SNAP beneficiaries, Utah (another Mountain West state) has the smallest percentage of Medicaid participants.
Social Explorer Table A20001, Public Health Coverage, derived from multiple ACS tables, also shows a correlation with the SNAP data, although the figures include individuals also enrolled in Medicare, the federal program for the aged and disabled:
Because states bear a significant cost of the Medicaid program, eligibility requirements are even more variable than SNAP. The 2010 Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, expanded the Medicaid program to include almost all adults with incomes of as much as 138 percent of the federal poverty rate while also giving states the option to expand their Medicaid programs through an enhanced federal matching rate. Through mid-2025, 40 states and the District of Columbia had expanded Medicaid coverage; only Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Kansas, and Wyoming – for the most part, conservative states – had rejected the expansion.
Why the Question "Which States Have the Most People on Welfare?" Is So Difficult to Answer
Definitively answering the question, "Which states have the most people on welfare?" is challenging as the word “welfare” is a vague description of public assistance that can be measured in multiple ways, ranging from cash payments made via TANF to state- and federally subsidized health insurance through Medicaid.
The Census Bureau, which is the nation’s premier collector of data, does not have a single definition for welfare. It’s possible, however, to develop a rough gauge of individuals, families, or households that benefit from some form of welfare via the American Community Survey, in order to answer the question, "Which states have the most people on welfare?" The ACS offers data across a wide range of geographies ranging from Census blocks that can be used to approximate neighborhoods, congressional districts, zip codes, counties, places, and states.
All of this data is easily accessible via the Social Explorer's award-winning demographic mapping software. Create your own free account today to start conducting your own analysis.