The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the largest federal program to reduce domestic hunger, reaching nearly 40 million people in an average month during fiscal year 2020. A recent report estimates that 18 percent of those eligible for benefits nationwide did not participate in the program in 2018.

This visualization represents the joint efforts of the U.S. Census Bureau, the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service, the USDA’s Economic Research Service, and our state partners to increase understanding of current SNAP program access and inform future SNAP program outreach. The visualization uses American Community Survey data linked to state administrative records to model estimates of SNAP eligibility and access rates at the state and county levels. Using linked data allows us to estimate eligibility and access for a wide range of characteristics. More information on how we estimate SNAP eligibility is available in Newman and Scherpf (2013), and information on the methodology used to link data sources is available in Wagner and Layne (2014).

For any questions about the data visualization or to request csv copies of the estimates, email: ces.snap.wic.info.list@census.gov.