Federal Spending Per Capita by State
According to USASpending.gov, the official federal award-transaction dataset, 56 states and territories are ranked below by federal spending per resident. Per capita figures normalize spending by population to show relative intensity.
The pattern behind the ranking
The raw per-capita ranking is topped by North Dakota ($126,315/resident, 94.5% to USASpending's "Multiple Recipients"/"Redacted" bulk-claims placeholders); U.S. Virgin Islands ($123,194/resident, 90.2% to a single recipient, GOVERNMENT OF THE VIRGIN ISLANDS (a real entity, plausibly a multi-year grant obligation, not a data artifact)), each attributing most of its total to something other than broad-based resident spending (see the data note below). Among states without that distortion, District Of Columbia leads at $70,928 per resident, 4.5x the $15,622 national average. Northern Mariana Islands is the #56 bottom of this complete list at $3,621 per resident.
- Leader (excl. distortion)
- District Of Columbia
- $70,928
- vs. national average
- 4.5x
- National average
- $15,622
- #56 bottom
- Northern Mariana Islands
- $3,621
| Rank | State | Per Capita | Total Spending | Population | Data note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | North Dakota | $126,315 | $98.4B | 779,094 | ⚠ 94.5% bulk-claims |
| 2 | U.S. Virgin Islands | $123,194 | $10.7B | 87,146 | ⚠ 90.2% concentrated |
| 3 | District Of Columbia | $70,928 | $48.9B | 689,545 | -- |
| 4 | Connecticut | $42,600 | $153.6B | 3,605,944 | ⚠ 65.9% bulk-claims |
| 5 | Minnesota | $42,425 | $242.1B | 5,706,494 | ⚠ 89% bulk-claims |
| 6 | Kentucky | $38,460 | $173.3B | 4,505,836 | ⚠ 78.9% bulk-claims |
| 7 | Guam | $31,490 | $4.8B | 153,836 | -- |
| 8 | Indiana | $30,517 | $207.1B | 6,785,528 | ⚠ 83.7% bulk-claims |
| 9 | South Carolina | $26,788 | $137.1B | 5,118,425 | ⚠ 80.5% bulk-claims |
| 10 | Alaska | $25,101 | $18.4B | 733,391 | -- |
| 11 | Virginia | $24,807 | $214.1B | 8,631,393 | ⚠ 28.4% bulk-claims |
| 12 | Pennsylvania | $21,653 | $281.6B | 13,002,700 | ⚠ 70.5% bulk-claims |
| 13 | New Mexico | $19,577 | $41.5B | 2,117,522 | ⚠ 32.4% bulk-claims |
| 14 | Wisconsin | $19,169 | $113.0B | 5,893,718 | ⚠ 77.6% bulk-claims |
| 15 | Tennessee | $17,561 | $121.4B | 6,910,840 | ⚠ 71% bulk-claims |
| 16 | Maryland | $17,102 | $105.6B | 6,177,224 | ⚠ 32.4% bulk-claims |
| 17 | Maine | $16,154 | $22.0B | 1,362,359 | ⚠ 48.7% bulk-claims |
| 18 | Arizona | $15,678 | $112.1B | 7,151,502 | ⚠ 50.8% bulk-claims |
| 19 | Hawaii | $15,554 | $22.6B | 1,455,271 | ⚠ 40.2% bulk-claims |
| 20 | Missouri | $15,232 | $93.8B | 6,154,913 | ⚠ 60.4% bulk-claims |
| 21 | Florida | $15,092 | $325.1B | 21,538,187 | ⚠ 68% bulk-claims |
| 22 | Massachusetts | $14,689 | $103.3B | 7,029,917 | ⚠ 45.5% bulk-claims |
| 23 | Alabama | $14,242 | $71.6B | 5,024,279 | ⚠ 49.7% bulk-claims |
| 24 | Montana | $14,143 | $15.3B | 1,084,225 | ⚠ 49.1% bulk-claims |
| 25 | Nebraska | $14,140 | $27.7B | 1,961,504 | ⚠ 64.9% bulk-claims |
| 26 | Rhode Island | $13,799 | $15.1B | 1,097,379 | ⚠ 51.9% bulk-claims |
| 27 | Vermont | $13,783 | $8.9B | 643,077 | ⚠ 47.8% bulk-claims |
| 28 | Oregon | $13,499 | $57.2B | 4,237,256 | ⚠ 55.4% bulk-claims |
| 29 | West Virginia | $13,273 | $23.8B | 1,793,716 | ⚠ 52.4% bulk-claims |
| 30 | Mississippi | $13,008 | $38.5B | 2,961,279 | ⚠ 47.2% bulk-claims |
| 31 | New York | $12,978 | $262.2B | 20,201,249 | ⚠ 45.1% bulk-claims |
| 32 | South Dakota | $12,944 | $11.5B | 886,667 | ⚠ 55.3% bulk-claims |
| 33 | Louisiana | $12,840 | $59.8B | 4,657,757 | ⚠ 48.3% bulk-claims |
| 34 | Oklahoma | $12,682 | $50.2B | 3,959,353 | ⚠ 50.8% bulk-claims |
| 35 | Michigan | $12,538 | $126.3B | 10,077,331 | ⚠ 63.4% bulk-claims |
| 36 | Idaho | $12,406 | $22.8B | 1,839,106 | ⚠ 53.9% bulk-claims |
| 37 | North Carolina | $12,400 | $129.4B | 10,439,388 | ⚠ 53.6% bulk-claims |
| 38 | Delaware | $12,366 | $12.2B | 989,948 | ⚠ 58.8% bulk-claims |
| 39 | New Hampshire | $12,356 | $17.0B | 1,377,529 | ⚠ 56% bulk-claims |
| 40 | California | $12,283 | $485.6B | 39,538,223 | ⚠ 45.4% bulk-claims |
| 41 | Colorado | $12,155 | $70.2B | 5,773,714 | ⚠ 44.4% bulk-claims |
| 42 | Wyoming | $12,119 | $7.0B | 576,851 | ⚠ 54.6% bulk-claims |
| 43 | American Samoa | $11,788 | $586.0M | 49,710 | -- |
| 44 | Puerto Rico | $11,693 | $38.4B | 3,285,874 | ⚠ 61.5% bulk-claims |
| 45 | Washington | $11,619 | $89.5B | 7,705,281 | ⚠ 49.6% bulk-claims |
| 46 | Arkansas | $11,603 | $34.9B | 3,011,524 | ⚠ 57% bulk-claims |
| 47 | Iowa | $11,432 | $36.5B | 3,190,369 | ⚠ 54.6% bulk-claims |
| 48 | Ohio | $10,938 | $129.1B | 11,799,448 | ⚠ 54.8% bulk-claims |
| 49 | Nevada | $10,929 | $33.9B | 3,104,614 | ⚠ 53.3% bulk-claims |
| 50 | Texas | $10,686 | $311.4B | 29,145,505 | ⚠ 46.1% bulk-claims |
| 51 | Kansas | $10,560 | $31.0B | 2,937,880 | ⚠ 60.1% bulk-claims |
| 52 | Illinois | $10,503 | $134.6B | 12,812,508 | ⚠ 54.6% bulk-claims |
| 53 | New Jersey | $10,394 | $96.5B | 9,288,994 | ⚠ 55.2% bulk-claims |
| 54 | Georgia | $9,878 | $105.8B | 10,711,908 | ⚠ 56.3% bulk-claims |
| 55 | Utah | $8,897 | $29.1B | 3,271,616 | ⚠ 49.1% bulk-claims |
| 56 | Northern Mariana Islands | $3,621 | $171.4M | 47,329 | ⚠ 41.7% bulk-claims ⚠ 70.2% concentrated |
Methodology
Per-capita values divide USASpending.gov (U.S. Treasury) obligated amounts by U.S. Census Bureau population estimates for the corresponding fiscal year. States with very small populations may show outsized per-capita figures. Some states' totals are also heavily influenced by USASpending's "Multiple Recipients"/"Redacted Due To PII" bulk-claims placeholders -- see the data note above the table. Read the full methodology →
Every figure on PlainSpending is computed directly from USASpending.gov award-transaction data, no number is typed in by an editor. This ranking divides each state's total spending by its Census population, live from the dataset. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.