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What demographic groups saw the largest changes in SNAP participation between 2022 and 2024?
Executive Summary
Between 2022 and 2024 available analyses indicate the largest documented increases in SNAP participation occurred among households with children, with pandemic-era policy changes driving sharp enrollment growth that persisted into 2024; studies also point to notable increases in participation tied to unemployment and income shocks, while age-group shares remained relatively stable with adults 18–59 and children together composing the bulk of participants [1] [2] [3]. Data limitations and differing reference periods mean precise percentage-point changes by race, age, or disability status between 2022 and 2024 are not consistently reported across sources, so conclusions must rely on multiple studies and program reports that emphasize children, newly eligible low-income households, and households affected by pandemic-era expansions as the main drivers of growth [4] [1].
1. Why children’s households stand out as the biggest gainers in SNAP rolls
Multiple analyses document that households with children experienced the largest uptick in SNAP participation from pre-pandemic years through 2024. A June 2025 household-level study reports that the number of households with children participating in SNAP more than doubled from 2019 to 2020, and that pandemic-era policy changes produced sustained higher enrollment and increased food spending among these families [1]. The USDA’s participation-rate report for fiscal 2022 shows high overall take-up among the neediest groups and cautions that pandemic disruptions complicate year-to-year comparisons, but it corroborates that families with children comprised a majority of participants in recent years [4]. Taken together, these sources indicate that child-bearing households captured the largest absolute growth in participation across the 2020–2024 window, a trend that persisted into 2024 as program expansions and economic shocks kept enrollment elevated [1] [4].
2. Employment, unemployment and working families: the economic engine behind changes
Analyses link SNAP enrollment changes to labor market shifts: rising unemployment and income loss account for substantial increases in caseloads, and working families represent a large share of participants. USDA and ERS materials note that a one-percentage-point increase in unemployment historically adds 2–3 million SNAP participants, and the share of participants in working families remained significant in 2023–2024 snapshots [3] [5]. A 2024 participant-survey and later reports show many recipients are in working households and that the pandemic-era benefit adjustments and administrative flexibilities reduced barriers for income-affected households [6] [5]. These patterns imply that low-income working families and newly unemployed households were important demographic contributors to net changes between 2022 and 2024 even where precise subgroup deltas are not uniformly tabulated [3] [6].
3. Race, disability and older adults: changes are present but less clearly quantified
Available sources report that distributions by race and disability status among new and continuing participants were similar in some studies, but they stop short of providing clean year-over-year change estimates from 2022 to 2024. The June 2025 scanner-data study reports similar racial and ethnic distributions for existing and new participants, while USDA tables for 2022 show higher participation rates for the neediest subgroups generally [1] [4]. State-level 2024 snapshots (e.g., Alabama) and national summaries indicate sizable shares of participants include older adults or people with disabilities, but these sources caution that differences across 2022–2024 cannot be robustly compared without consistent measurement windows [5] [7]. Thus race and disability show participation but not clearly the largest shifts in the studied period given current reporting constraints [1] [5].
4. Methodological caveats that limit definitive subgroup comparisons
USDA and research reports explicitly warn that comparisons across 2020–2022–2024 are complicated by data quality issues during the COVID public-health emergency, differing sample months, and program-policy shifts that changed eligibility and administrative reporting [4]. The FY2022 participation rates are based on a full fiscal year while pre-pandemic 2020 estimates use only five months of QC data because of the emergency; later studies use differing windows and data sources such as scanner-panel households or surveys, making direct percentage-point comparisons across demographic subgroups prone to error [4] [1]. Analysts therefore rely on converging signals—doubling of child-households from 2019–2020, high shares of children in 2023, and unemployment-linked enrollment rises—rather than a single clean year-to-year table [1] [3].
5. What the evidence implies for policymakers and future reporting
The convergent evidence implies that targeted outreach and documentation should focus on families with children and income-disrupted working households, since those groups accounted for the largest measurable enrollment increases from the pandemic through 2024. Policymakers should note that while children’s households and newly income-affected working families show clear increases, gaps remain in measuring race, disability, and age group shifts precisely because of inconsistent data windows; improving year-to-year comparable demographic reporting would clarify which subgroups need sustained support [1] [4]. Future reporting that standardizes fiscal windows and disaggregates by race, disability status, and household composition would resolve current ambiguities and better guide resource allocation [3] [4].