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FOOD STAMPS  
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Drew DeSilver
November 14, 2025
Pew Research Center
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_ What the data says about food stamps in the U.S. _

A sign in the window of a Miami grocery store shows it accepts
payments through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or
SNAP. , Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

 

Even before large pieces of the federal government shut down in
October 2025, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
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or SNAP – sometimes called the food stamp program – was in for
some big changes.

The tax, spending and policy bill
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Congress earlier this year expanded work requirements for SNAP,
tightened eligibility rules, imposed new cost-sharing obligations on
states and made other changes to the program. The Congressional Budget
Office has estimated that the changes will reduce federal spending on
SNAP by $186.7 billion over the next decade
[[link removed]].

But the 43-day shutdown created further challenges for the program,
which helps nearly 42 million Americans put food on the table. While
October benefits were paid in full and on time, November’s payments
got caught up in a tangle of lawsuits, conflicting court rulings and
short-term, state-level fixes. The law reopening the government
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funds SNAP through September 2026, the end of the current fiscal year.

Here’s a closer look at the food stamp program, based on data from
the U.S. Department of Agriculture (whose Food and Nutrition Service
administers SNAP), the Census Bureau and other sources.

How many Americans use food stamps?

The numbers vary from month to month. But in May 2025, the most recent
month with available figures, 41.7 million people in 22.4 million
households received SNAP benefits. That works out to nearly 1 in every
8 people in the country.

On average, 42.4 million people in 22.7 million households received
monthly SNAP benefits through the first eight months of the 2025
fiscal year (October 2024 to May 2025).

SNAP operates in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam and the
Virgin Islands. A separate program
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provides nutrition assistance grants to Puerto Rico, American Samoa
and the Northern Mariana Islands.

How has the number of food stamp recipients changed over time?

The program now known as SNAP began in 1964 but took several years to
ramp up. It wasn’t until July 1974 that states – which share
administrative duties over SNAP with the federal government – were
required to extend it to all jurisdictions within their borders. That
year, 12.9 million people, or 6.1% of the resident U.S. population at
the time, received SNAP benefits.

Program participation has ebbed and flowed over the ensuing decades,
driven both by changes in economic conditions and eligibility rules.
More people file for SNAP benefits during recessions, and
participation generally doesn’t fall back until recoveries have
fully taken hold.

For instance, between fiscal years 1980 and 2008, the share of all
U.S. households receiving SNAP benefits stayed between about 7% and
about 11%. But that percentage rose rapidly during the Great
Recession, peaking at 18.8% in fiscal 2013 – representing 47.6
million people.

In March 2020, as the nation headed into COVID-19 lockdowns, Congress
authorized extra SNAP benefits for recipients and suspended work and
training requirements
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for the duration of the declared public health emergency. The number
of recipients immediately jumped, from 37.2 million to 40.9 million in
April 2020. Participation eventually reached just over 43 million
recipients in September 2020, or 13% of the resident population.

Who is eligible for food stamps?

In general, a household qualifies for SNAP if it has a gross monthly
income at or below 130% of the federal poverty level
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net monthly income at or below 100% of the federal poverty level. For
a family of four, this currently works out to $3,483 in gross monthly
income and $2,680 in net monthly income. (These limits are higher in
Alaska, Hawaii, Guam and the Virgin Islands
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Households with people ages 60 and older or with disabilities only
have to meet the _net income_ requirement. And households of all types
are limited in how much they can have in cash, investments and other
assets and still qualify for SNAP. In addition, the policy law enacted
by Congress in July 2025 places new restrictions on how households can
deduct expenses for utilities and internet service from their gross
income.

Households receiving other types of aid, such as Temporary Assistance
for Needy Families (TANF) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI), may
be eligible for SNAP automatically.

States have a certain degree of latitude
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administer the SNAP program. For example, they can decide how broadly
to extend its benefits to people receiving other TANF-funded benefits,
whether to count vehicles as household assets, and whether to count
child support payments as income. In addition, there are somewhat
different eligibility rules for Alaska, Hawaii, Guam and the Virgin
Islands.

What work requirements are there for receiving food stamps?

To receive SNAP benefits, most Americans ages 16 to 59 who aren’t
disabled must register with their state SNAP agency or employment
office; meet any work, job search or job training requirements set by
their state; accept a suitable job if one is offered to them; and work
at least 30 hours a week. Failure to comply with these rules can
disqualify people from benefits.

In addition, nondisabled adults without dependents must either work or
participate in a work program for 80 hours a month, or participate in
a state workfare program. If they fail to do so, they can only receive
SNAP benefits for three months out of any 36-month period.

Until recently, this additional work requirement only applied to
people ages 18 to 49. A deal that resolved the 2023 debt-limit
standoff raised the maximum age to 54
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and the big domestic policy law enacted by Congress earlier this year
raises it further, to 65. That law also removes exemptions from the
work requirements for veterans, homeless people and young adults who
have aged out of foster care, and it adds exemptions for Native
Americans.

[Note: Shares may not sum to 100% due to rounding. Survey asked for
recipients’ age and (for children) living arrangements as of
December 2023. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2024 Survey of Income and
Program Participation.]

The most comprehensive data source we have is the Census Bureau’s
Survey of Income and Program Participation
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although its most recent data is from 2023. That year, nearly 23
million SNAP recipients (65%) were adults, and 12.4 million (35%) were
children.

Non-Hispanic White people accounted for 44.2% of adult SNAP recipients
and 24.8% of child recipients in 2023. Nearly 27% of adult recipients
and almost a third of child recipients (32.3%) were Black. Hispanics,
who can be of any race, accounted for 24.2% of adult recipients and
40.7% of child recipients.

The vast majority of both adult and child recipients were born in the
United States – 81.1% and 96.9%, respectively.

Among adult recipients, 54.1% had a high school diploma or less
education. And despite the program’s work requirements, 61% said
they had not been employed at all that year.

The Census Bureau also looked at households where at least one person
received SNAP benefits. More than six-in-ten of these households
(63.1%) reported having no children in 2023; almost a third (32.7%)
said they lived alone. Among all SNAP-receiving households, 39% were
in the South, the highest share of any region.

How much do food stamp recipients get each month?

In May 2025, the national average benefit was $188.45 per person and
$350.89 per household. Amounts were considerably higher during the
pandemic period, when Congress authorized extra benefits
[[link removed]]. At its
peak in November 2022, the average monthly benefit was $259.50 per
person and $493.76 per household.

The purchasing power of SNAP benefits held relatively steady for
decades leading up to the Great Recession. The average per-person
monthly benefit, in 2025 dollars, ranged from $122 to $151 between
1979 and 2008. The inflation-adjusted value of the average benefit
rose during the Great Recession, and quite a bit more during the
pandemic era – peaking in 2021 at $252.96 monthly.

However, those nationwide averages conceal a considerable amount of
state-by-state variation. SNAP beneficiaries in New York received an
average of $218.44 per person in May 2025, while recipients in
Minnesota got $158.45 on average. (These rankings exclude Alaska,
Hawaii, the Virgin Islands and Guam, where there are different rules
[[link removed]] in place to
reflect higher food costs in those places.)

Why do benefits vary so much by state? One reason is that benefit
amounts are largely determined
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income, minus certain expenses. Household size also factors into the
calculation. So a state’s demographics and the condition of its
economy will influence how much its residents can receive through
SNAP.

The maximum SNAP benefit is based on the Thrifty Food Plan
[[link removed]], an estimate
by the Department of Agriculture (USDA) of how much it costs a family
of two adults and two children to buy foods and beverages “on a
limited budget to support a healthy diet through nutritious meals and
snacks at home.” That amount is adjusted for other household types
when determining benefit levels.

The Thrifty Food Plan was updated in 2021 for the first time in 15
years, and it had been scheduled for another reevaluation in 2026.
However, under the policy law Congress passed in July, USDA can’t
reevaluate the food plan until Oct. 1, 2027, at the earliest.
Additionally, any cost increase is limited to the overall inflation
rate. These changes are projected to reduce future benefit levels: By
2034, the Congressional Budget Office estimates
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monthly benefit will be $213 rather than the $227 it would have been
under prior law.

Where is food stamp usage highest and lowest?

In Guam, 22.5% of the population receives SNAP benefits – the
highest rate of any state or territory, according to a Pew Research
Center analysis. New Mexico is next highest (21.5%), followed by the
District of Columbia (20%) and the Virgin Islands (19.9%).

Wyoming has the nation’s lowest rate of SNAP use: Just 4.6% of
Cowboy State residents get the benefits. Wyoming’s neighbor, Utah,
is close behind at 5.1%. Other states with low rates include New
Hampshire (5.4%) and Kansas (6.3%).

What can you buy with food stamps? What can’t you buy?

SNAP benefits can be used to buy most groceries for household use
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and pastries; meats, poultry and fish (but not, in most cases, live
animals and birds); fruits and vegetables; dairy products, including
ice cream; and snack foods such as cookies, cakes and soft drinks.
Recipients can also use SNAP benefits to buy plants and seeds to grow
food for the household, but not (for example) non-edible flowers.

Alcoholic beverages and tobacco products _cannot_ be bought with SNAP
benefits, nor can nutritional supplements, medicines or pet food.
Foods that are sold hot (think rotisserie chickens or ready-to-eat
soups) aren’t eligible either, nor are household goods such as paper
towels, cleaning products and toiletries. Gasoline isn’t eligible
either.

Where can people use food stamps? Where do they use them most
frequently?

Almost 267,000 establishments – from grocery stores and farmers
markets to meal delivery services and senior centers – were
authorized to accept SNAP benefits as of September 2024. A few types
stand out:

* Supermarkets and superstores, such as Walmart and Target, together
make up about 15% of SNAP-accepting establishments, but they accounted
for nearly 74% of all redemptions.
* More than 44% of all SNAP-accepting establishments are convenience
stores, but they accounted for only about 5% of redemptions in 2024.
* While only 561 internet retailers, such as Amazon, were authorized
to accept SNAP benefits, they accounted for more than 10% of all
redemptions.

How much does the federal government spend on food stamps each year?

Through the first eight months of fiscal 2025, the government spent
almost $65 billion on benefits alone, 4.7% more than during the
corresponding period in fiscal 2024.

In fiscal 2024, the government spent $100.3 billion on SNAP. Nearly
all of that money ($93.7 billion, or 93.4%) went to benefits, while
$6.6 billion (6.6%) went to reimburse states for half of their
administrative and other expenses. (Under the new domestic policy law,
that reimbursement rate will fall to 25% starting in fiscal 2027.)

SNAP is one of the larger federal social welfare programs, but by no
means the largest. For comparison, in fiscal 2024, the federal
government spent $874.1 billion on Medicare, $617.5 billion on
Medicaid
[[link removed]],
$161.3 billion on income security for veterans, $54.4 billion on
Supplemental Security Income and $38.3 billion on unemployment
compensation.

Currently, the federal government pays 100% of SNAP benefit costs.
However, starting in fiscal 2028, many states may have to pay anywhere
from 5% to 15% of benefit costs from their own funds, depending on how
much they over- or underpay SNAP benefits in a given year.

This summer’s tax and policy law penalizes states with relatively
high rates of overpayment or underpayment. States with combined over-
and underpayment rates above 6% – the “error rate” – will have
to start paying for a share of their state’s benefits. The higher
the error rate, the higher the cost share.

Most states could feel the pinch. In fiscal 2024, the most recent year
for which data was available, only eight states and the Virgin Islands
had combined error rates lower than 6%, while Alaska’s was the
highest at 24.7%.

States that exceed the allowable error rate could be faced with
unpalatable choices
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raising taxes or cutting other expenses to pay for their cost share,
restricting eligibility to lower the potential cost, or even dropping
SNAP entirely.

How has the cost of the food stamp program changed over time?

SNAP is an entitlement program
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rises and falls based primarily on how many people qualify for
benefits – but also through changes in its authorizing legislation.

For decades, annual spending on SNAP appeared to follow a regular
pattern: It fell to around $31 billion a year (in inflation-adjusted
2024 dollars) during strong economic times and rose during and
immediately after recessions, at times topping $50 billion.

But that pattern changed following the dot-com recession of 2001.
Inflation-adjusted spending on SNAP rose throughout the 2000s, even
after the economy began growing again. It then jumped after the
economy sank into the Great Recession, topping out at $107.6 billion
in inflation-adjusted dollars in fiscal 2013. SNAP spending then fell
slowly, until the COVID-19 pandemic upended the economy again.
Spending on the program soared from $74.2 billion in fiscal 2019 to
$132.4 billion in fiscal 2021 in inflation-adjusted dollars. Since the
2021 peak, inflation-adjusted SNAP spending has fallen 24.2%.

Why are they called ‘food stamps,’ anyway?

The precursor to the modern SNAP program
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1939 and ran until 1943, did use actual stamps. Besides feeding the
hungry, the program was designed to aid farmers struggling with
surplus crops they couldn’t sell profitably.

People receiving public assistance could buy orange stamps that were
exchangeable, dollar for dollar, for most food items at grocery
stores. For every dollar participants spent on orange stamps, they
also received 50 cents’ worth of blue stamps, which could be spent
only on USDA-designated surplus commodities such as beans, eggs, dairy
products, fruits and vegetables. Over the program’s lifespan,
approximately 20 million people received food stamps at one time or
another, at a total cost of $262 million.

The U.S. entry into World War II put an end to the first food stamp
program, as the war effort absorbed both farm and labor surpluses. But
the concept stuck in people’s heads, and when it was revived in 1964
as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty,” it was
formally named the Food Stamp Program. But instead of stamps,
beneficiaries purchased multicolored “food coupons” that could be
used much like cash. The purchase requirement was eliminated in 1977,
benefits began to be widely delivered by debit card in the 1990s, and
by 2004 the paper coupons had gone the way of the blue and orange
stamps. The program was renamed SNAP in 2008.

_Note: This is an update of a post originally published July 19,
2023._

Drew DeSilver [[link removed]] is a
senior writer at Pew Research Center

* SNAP
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* Food Stamps
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