Federal Spending by State
57 states and territories ranked by total federal spending. Click a state for detailed breakdowns.
Coverage status: all 50 states and DC plus US territories (57 jurisdictions). Nationwide coverage of FY2025 place-of-performance federal awards from USASpending.gov.
Federal spending is not evenly distributed: a handful of states with large defense installations, federal employee populations, or per-capita formula-grant exposure pull totals far above the median. Reading this table by absolute dollars rewards population-weighted states; reading it by per-capita reveals the structural footprint federal programs leave on smaller economies.
Each state row breaks the same FY total into its four functional channels, contracts (procurement), grants (state-administered programs), direct payments (Social Security, veterans, retirement), and other awards. The mix matters as much as the total: a state heavy on direct payments has a different fiscal relationship with the federal government than one dominated by procurement contracts. Click into any state for the full breakdown plus county and recipient-level detail.
All figures come from USASpending.gov, the U.S. Treasury's authoritative public ledger of federal awards, attributed by recipient place of performance. Per-capita denominators use U.S. Census Bureau population estimates.
| # | State | Total Spending | Per Capita | Population | Contract Awards | Grant Awards | Direct Pay Awards |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California (CA) | $485.6B | $12,283 | 39,538,223 | 305,368 | 39,718 | 78,305 |
| 2 | Florida (FL) | $325.1B | $15,092 | 21,538,187 | 220,048 | 18,267 | 50,834 |
| 3 | Texas (TX) | $311.4B | $10,686 | 29,145,505 | 255,887 | 24,297 | 310,848 |
| 4 | Pennsylvania (PA) | $281.6B | $21,653 | 13,002,700 | 681,601 | 18,518 | 48,386 |
| 5 | New York (NY) | $262.2B | $12,978 | 20,201,249 | 303,635 | 25,281 | 46,597 |
| 6 | Minnesota (MN) | $242.1B | $42,425 | 5,706,494 | 44,456 | 9,241 | 157,949 |
| 7 | Virginia (VA) | $214.1B | $24,807 | 8,631,393 | 501,390 | 10,721 | 52,460 |
| 8 | Indiana (IN) | $207.1B | $30,517 | 6,785,528 | 28,784 | 11,315 | 100,632 |
| 9 | Kentucky (KY) | $173.3B | $38,460 | 4,505,836 | 65,007 | 6,628 | 67,579 |
| 10 | Connecticut (CT) | $153.6B | $42,600 | 3,605,944 | 44,227 | 8,420 | 7,707 |
| 11 | South Carolina (SC) | $137.1B | $26,788 | 5,118,425 | 55,618 | 6,154 | 27,410 |
| 12 | Illinois (IL) | $134.6B | $10,503 | 12,812,508 | 699,224 | 16,476 | 207,106 |
| 13 | North Carolina (NC) | $129.4B | $12,400 | 10,439,388 | 201,572 | 13,159 | 64,840 |
| 14 | Ohio (OH) | $129.1B | $10,938 | 11,799,448 | 80,110 | 15,308 | 120,902 |
| 15 | Michigan (MI) | $126.3B | $12,538 | 10,077,331 | 181,104 | 16,542 | 68,760 |
| 16 | Tennessee (TN) | $121.4B | $17,561 | 6,910,840 | 29,683 | 9,612 | 81,590 |
| 17 | Wisconsin (WI) | $113.0B | $19,169 | 5,893,718 | 79,538 | 10,386 | 86,540 |
| 18 | Arizona (AZ) | $112.1B | $15,678 | 7,151,502 | 51,564 | 8,588 | 20,776 |
| 19 | Georgia (GA) | $105.8B | $9,878 | 10,711,908 | 124,150 | 11,697 | 80,131 |
| 20 | Maryland (MD) | $105.6B | $17,102 | 6,177,224 | 116,257 | 10,507 | 19,165 |
| 21 | Massachusetts (MA) | $103.3B | $14,689 | 7,029,917 | 127,160 | 17,929 | 13,982 |
| 22 | North Dakota (ND) | $98.4B | $126,315 | 779,094 | 3,595 | 3,451 | 72,712 |
| 23 | New Jersey (NJ) | $96.5B | $10,394 | 9,288,994 | 526,131 | 8,366 | 16,755 |
| 24 | Missouri (MO) | $93.8B | $15,232 | 6,154,913 | 125,440 | 11,079 | 150,925 |
| 25 | Washington (WA) | $89.5B | $11,619 | 7,705,281 | 99,739 | 11,809 | 46,741 |
| 26 | Alabama (AL) | $71.6B | $14,242 | 5,024,279 | 77,728 | 8,526 | 45,859 |
| 27 | Colorado (CO) | $70.2B | $12,155 | 5,773,714 | 47,532 | 9,888 | 51,516 |
| 28 | Louisiana (LA) | $59.8B | $12,840 | 4,657,757 | 31,991 | 7,101 | 54,942 |
| 29 | Oregon (OR) | $57.2B | $13,499 | 4,237,256 | 16,845 | 8,015 | 27,134 |
| 30 | Oklahoma (OK) | $50.2B | $12,682 | 3,959,353 | 25,051 | 10,015 | 150,576 |
| 31 | District Of Columbia (DC) | $48.9B | $70,928 | 689,545 | 59,362 | 4,415 | 1,041 |
| 32 | New Mexico (NM) | $41.5B | $19,577 | 2,117,522 | 10,654 | 5,630 | 20,348 |
| 33 | New Mexico (NM) | $41.5B | $19,577 | 2,117,522 | 10,654 | 5,630 | 20,348 |
| 34 | Mississippi (MS) | $38.5B | $13,008 | 2,961,279 | 108,943 | 4,817 | 45,194 |
| 35 | Puerto Rico (PR) | $38.4B | $11,693 | 3,285,874 | 4,393 | 3,831 | 20,259 |
| 36 | Iowa (IA) | $36.5B | $11,432 | 3,190,369 | 20,757 | 5,662 | 201,954 |
| 37 | Arkansas (AR) | $34.9B | $11,603 | 3,011,524 | 37,497 | 5,055 | 68,463 |
| 38 | Nevada (NV) | $33.9B | $10,929 | 3,104,614 | 21,225 | 3,921 | 7,109 |
| 39 | Kansas (KS) | $31.0B | $10,560 | 2,937,880 | 30,312 | 4,530 | 301,409 |
| 40 | Utah (UT) | $29.1B | $8,897 | 3,271,616 | 14,116 | 5,298 | 12,029 |
| 41 | Nebraska (NE) | $27.7B | $14,140 | 1,961,504 | 19,107 | 5,040 | 172,997 |
| 42 | West Virginia (WV) | $23.8B | $13,273 | 1,793,716 | 7,019 | 5,952 | 22,367 |
| 43 | Idaho (ID) | $22.8B | $12,406 | 1,839,106 | 15,617 | 4,727 | 23,476 |
| 44 | Hawaii (HI) | $22.6B | $15,554 | 1,455,271 | 32,066 | 3,355 | 3,275 |
| 45 | Maine (ME) | $22.0B | $16,154 | 1,362,359 | 12,380 | 4,624 | 7,032 |
| 46 | Alaska (AK) | $18.4B | $25,101 | 733,391 | 11,964 | 6,989 | 6,056 |
| 47 | New Hampshire (NH) | $17.0B | $12,356 | 1,377,529 | 4,183 | 3,458 | 4,550 |
| 48 | Montana (MT) | $15.3B | $14,143 | 1,084,225 | 10,676 | 5,175 | 43,118 |
| 49 | Rhode Island (RI) | $15.1B | $13,799 | 1,097,379 | 5,638 | 3,719 | 2,995 |
| 50 | Delaware (DE) | $12.2B | $12,366 | 989,948 | 5,192 | 2,426 | 3,467 |
| 51 | South Dakota (SD) | $11.5B | $12,944 | 886,667 | 4,432 | 3,822 | 97,102 |
| 52 | U.S. Virgin Islands (VI) | $10.7B | $123,194 | 87,146 | 304 | 787 | 527 |
| 53 | Vermont (VT) | $8.9B | $13,783 | 643,077 | 5,586 | 3,889 | 5,354 |
| 54 | Wyoming (WY) | $7.0B | $12,119 | 576,851 | 5,197 | 2,960 | 14,342 |
| 55 | Guam (GU) | $4.8B | $31,490 | 153,836 | 7,145 | 933 | 451 |
| 56 | American Samoa (AS) | $586.0M | $11,788 | 49,710 | 64 | 591 | 235 |
| 57 | Northern Mariana Islands (MP) | $171.4M | $3,621 | 47,329 | 125 | 709 | 371 |
Top States by Per-Capita Federal Spending
Smaller states often dominate per-capita rankings even when their absolute totals are modest. Here are five of the highest.
Methodology
State-level federal spending comes from USASpending.gov (U.S. Treasury), attributed by place of performance. Per-capita denominators use U.S. Census Bureau estimates; budget-category context comes from OMB. 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 sorts all 50 states, DC, and territories by total federal spending, live from the dataset. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.