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Percent who participated in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in United States

Percent who participated in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program

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Definition and Source

PROVIDER

Definition

Percent of total eligible population who participated in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

Persons are eligible for participation in SNAP (formerly the Food Stamp Program) if they meet certain resource and income tests. Not everyone who is eligible for food stamps elects to take them. More detailed information about eligibility is here: https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/recipient/eligibility.

SNAP eligibility rules were applied to the Current Population Survey (CPS) to estimate the total eligible population in each state.

Data Source

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Studies. 2015-2017 Mathematica Policy Research Institute analysis of participation data and eligible persons. The 2015-2017 report can be found at: https://www.mathematica.org/our-publications-and-findings/publications/empirical-bayes-shrinkage-estimates-of-state-snap-participation-rates-in-fiscal-year-2015-to-2017.

Notes

A 90 percent confidence interval for each estimate can be found at Percent who participated in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Last Updated

April 2023