46,609,072 People on Food Stamps in 2012; Record 47,791,996 in December http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/46609072-people-food-stamps-2012_706745.html On Friday, the United States Department of Agriculture quietly released new statistics related to the food stamps program, officially known as SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). The numbers reveal, in 2012, the food stamps program was the biggest it's ever been, with an average of 46,609,072 people on the program every month of last year. 47,791,996 people were on the program in the month of December 2012. The federal government also says that in a given month in 2012, the number of households on food stamps was 22,329,713. The state with the highest average number of participants per month in 2012 was Texas, with an astonishing 4,038,440 folks drawing from the program. The second highest is California, with 3,964,221, and then Florida, at 3,353,064. Washington, D.C., with an estimated population of 617,996, had an average of 141,147 participants. Meaning, roughly 23 percent of folks living in D.C. are on food stamps, according to the numbers provided by the federal government. The participation rate in Texas, which has an estimated population of 26,059,203, 15.5 percent. The state with the lowest number of participants in the program was Wyoming, with 34,347 out an estimated population of 576,412.
Makes sense, since Texas has more jobs than those states which results in more layoffs and people needing assistance.
Also Texas has relatively low wages and a pretty minimal set of state social-safety net programs which necessitates reliance on federal programs like food stamps.
I would venture that lower average wage is indeed the reason Texas would be ahead of California. Even if they had additional state social programs, they would still have food stamps available, and most likely be using them even if they weren't as needed.
I wonder if this is related When you artificially inflate the number of available employees then you can artificially suppress wages and you have a larger portion of under and unemployed. Rocket River
I believe they are if their children are born in the United States- I know a construction worker with 7 kids and I know he sure as hell can't make it with his measly salary- he receives Lone Star Card and other freebies
What relevance does this stat have? For comparison purposes, why wouldn't you use food stamps per 10,000 people? This is just bad statistics.
I calculated this data from here: http://www.statehealthfacts.org/profileind.jsp?cat=1&sub=7&rgn=2 Here you go: *Wyoming 5.96% *North Dakota 8.40% *New Hampshire 8.85% *New Jersey 9.32% *Colorado 9.48% *Nebraska 9.49% *Utah 9.70% *Minnesota 10.02% *California 10.42% *Kansas 10.56% *Virginia 11.16% *Connecticut 11.24% *Maryland 12.17% *South Dakota 12.46% *Alaska 12.48% *Montana 12.52% *Hawaii 12.70% *Nevada 12.86% *Massachusetts 12.96% *Iowa 13.27% *Indiana 13.90% *Pennsylvania 14.10% *Illinois 14.52% *Wisconsin 14.59% *Idaho 14.60% *Vermont 15.43% *Texas 15.50% *Ohio 15.66% *New York 15.72% *Missouri 15.74% *Washington 16.07% *Oklahoma 16.12% *Delaware 16.17% *Rhode Island 16.46% *Arkansas 17.03% *North Carolina 17.11% *Arizona 17.15% *Florida 17.36% *South Carolina 18.41% *Michigan 18.50% *West Virginia 18.69% *Alabama 18.88% *Maine 19.02% *Georgia 19.28% *Kentucky 19.39% *Tennessee 20.40% *Louisiana 20.62% *Oregon 20.91% *New Mexico 21.01% *Mississippi 22.11% *District of Columbia 22.32% Texas is about middle of the pack. SEC country seems to be sucking the tit the most. Those damn liberal Californians seem to pretty self sufficient.
Yeah, the southern states mooch quite a bit. So much for being self-sufficient and independent. DC is a bit of outlier, because it's a city with no wealthy suburbs to give it money. It would be like if Detroit was its own state.
Based on the presidential election the % of the people on food stamps in red states is 17.5% and 14.3% in blue states.
