Which state had the highest number of SNAP recipients in 2023?

1. What the original claim says and why it matters — parsing the headline that California led the nation

The central claim extracted from the materials is straightforward: California was the state with the most SNAP recipients in 2023, averaging 5.2 million participants per month, with Texas second at 3.4 million ^[1]. That numeric ranking matters because raw counts — not percentages of state population — determine federal and state administrative workload, program costs, and local food-security policy planning. The FY2023 State Activity Report links these totals to program-wide shifts, such as the end of emergency allotments under the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, changes that reduced per-household issuance after February 2023 and thus likely influenced enrollment dynamics during the fiscal year ^[1]. The report also supplies national context — 42.1 million average monthly participants and $106.9 billion in issuance — anchoring the state-level totals within the broader program scale ^[1].

2. Where the evidence is strongest — the FY2023 report that names California as largest by count

The clearest piece of evidence is the SNAP State Activity Report for Fiscal Year 2023, which explicitly lists state-by-state average monthly participation and identifies California (5.2 million) and Texas (3.4 million) as the top two in absolute terms ^[1]. That source also supplies ancillary metrics that corroborate the report’s internal consistency: average monthly benefit figures ($208.75 per person; $365.75 per household), total issuance ($106.9 billion), and administrative cost figures ($11.1 billion prior to federal cost-sharing) for FY2023 ^[1]. These accompanying data strengthen confidence in the participation counts because they reflect aggregated transactions and reimbursements tied to those participant totals, making the report the authoritative source within the provided material for who had the most recipients in 2023 ^[1].

3. Conflicting signals and gaps — why other documents appear inconclusive or focus on shares, not counts

Several other provided analyses do not contradict California’s lead but do not clearly restate it. Some documents focus on share of population or provide partial state tallies (for example, New Mexico’s high share in 2024 or Alabama’s 752,200 participants in a FY2024 snapshot) rather than absolute counts in calendar year 2023 ^{[2] [3] [4]}. Other materials recommend downloading state-level sheets or reference FY2024 data without repeating the FY2023 national ranking, leaving room for interpretation when users look only at percentage-of-population metrics versus total people served ^{[5] [6]}. These differences reflect different analytic frames — total recipients versus recipients as a share of state population — not a direct contradiction of the FY2023 report’s statement that California had the largest number of participants ^{[1] [2]}.

4. Synthesis and direct answer — California leads by raw participant count in 2023

Weighing the available sources supplied in the analyses, the best-supported conclusion is that California had the highest number of SNAP recipients in 2023, with an average of 5.2 million persons participating per month, and Texas was second with about 3.4 million ^[1]. Other sources emphasize percent-of-population measures or present partial state counts for different fiscal years ^{[2] [3] [7]}, which can produce different “top states” depending on the metric. The FY2023 State Activity Report is the definitive document among the supplied materials for absolute counts in that fiscal year and aligns its participant totals with issuance and administrative data, reinforcing the reliability of its state-level ranking ^[1].

5. Caveats, unanswered questions, and how to verify further — the data users should check next

Users should note important caveats: the FY2023 report frames participation as average monthly persons in a fiscal year rather than a single point-in-time count; results can change if measured by peak months, households instead of persons, or by share of state residents ^{[1] [2]}. Policy changes — notably the end of emergency allotments in early 2023 — altered benefit levels and may have affected month-to-month participation patterns, so cross-checking monthly tables or state fact sheets is advisable for more granular questions ^{[1] [5]}. To verify independently within the set of supplied documents, consult the FY2023 State Activity Report’s state-level participation tables and the complementary SNAP data tables cited elsewhere for specific months or alternate metrics ^{[1] [5]}.