SNAP FED 42.1 MILLION AMERICANS A MONTH IN 2025
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the federal food aid program for low-income people and families, served an average of 42.1 million people a month in fiscal year 2025. That was 12.3% of the U.S. population, according to USAFacts and USDA’s Economic Research Service, which landed on the same numbers.
The figure is a fiscal-year monthly average, not a head count on any one day. USDA’s Economic Research Service put it this way: “SNAP served 42.1 million participants per month in FY 2025 on average, at an annual Federal cost of $101.7 billion.”
The agency’s annual report on the nation’s food assistance programs, released in June 2026, said participation rose 1% from 41.7 million a month in fiscal year 2024. It remained above prepandemic levels and was similar to recent years, according to the Economic Research Service report.
Who gets SNAP, and where
SNAP used to be called the Food Stamp program. USDA runs it at the federal level, but states handle most of the day-to-day administration, USAFacts reported.
Eligibility comes down to household income compared with the federal poverty level. Outside Alaska and Hawaii, USAFacts said, a household generally has to bring in less than 30% above the poverty level before expenses are counted, or less than the poverty level once they are.
For October 2025 through September 2026, that worked out to a gross monthly limit of $1,305 for a one-person household and $2,680 for a family of four. An eight-person household topped out at $4,513. Alaska and Hawaii have higher cutoffs because living costs are higher there.
Where people live made a big difference. New Mexico had the highest share of residents on SNAP in fiscal year 2025 at 21.9%, with Washington, DC, second at 20.3%. Wyoming had the lowest at 4.7%.
Most of the country sat in the middle. The Economic Research Service’s state participation chart showed 36 states with rates between 8% and 16%.
The high-water mark for the whole country came in fiscal year 2013, when 15% of Americans received SNAP, the highest share in the program’s history, USAFacts said.
Households with children leaned on the program more. In 2024, 18% of households with children took part in SNAP, compared with 9.3% of households without children, USAFacts reported.
The gap was widest among single mothers. Households headed by a woman with no spouse present and children under 18 had a participation rate of 38.3%. Married-couple households without children came in at 3.8%.
The money side
SNAP is by far the biggest piece of USDA’s nutrition assistance budget. It made up 69% of that spending in fiscal year 2025, according to the Economic Research Service.
The agency reported an average monthly benefit of $187.94 per participant that year.
The latest numbers show spending heading down. On October 14, 2026, the Economic Research Service published a chart note saying SNAP spending of $101.7 billion in fiscal year 2025 was down 1% from fiscal year 2024. It was also down 23% from the fiscal year 2021 peak of $131.8 billion, with amounts adjusted to 2025 dollars.
