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Fact check: Which states have the highest and lowest food stamp participation rates in 2025?
Executive Summary
The evidence assembled from July–October 2025 reporting and USDA data indicates that New Mexico is widely cited as having the highest SNAP participation rate (about 21–21.2%), while Utah is reported as having one of the lowest rates (around 4.8%) in analyses that use fiscal‑year‑2024 or early‑2025 data [1] [2]. Reporting agrees on the broad pattern—high participation in some New Mexico and Southern states and low participation in certain Mountain West states—but the sources differ in scope, with USDA data tables available through January 2025 that require users to compute state rankings rather than stating a single summary list [3] [4]. This review explains the claims, compares reporting, and highlights data limitations and differing emphases among outlets and official tables.
1. Why New Mexico’s top ranking keeps recurring — what the reports say and why it matters
Multiple analyses and news articles identify New Mexico as having the highest SNAP participation rate, cited near 21–21.2 percent, basing that figure on fiscal‑year‑2024 or early‑2025 compiled counts of SNAP recipients relative to state population [1] [2]. The July 2024 report is explicit about the 21.2 percent figure and frames it as a state‑level participation rate derived from state SNAP enrollment data [1]. Later October 2025 journalism repeats the 21 percent figure while using the same underlying USDA reporting window or state counts, reinforcing consistency across independent outlets [2]. This repeated identification matters because it signals persistent, measurable differences in need or eligibility uptake that policymakers, advocates, and state governments reference when designing program outreach, eligibility determinations, and emergency planning.
2. Why Utah is repeatedly characterized as the low end — numbers and context
Among the cited materials one specific claim places Utah at about 4.8 percent participation, presenting it as the lowest state rate in the dataset covering fiscal‑year‑2024 [1]. That low figure appears in the July 2024 report and is echoed indirectly by sources that list state counts but emphasize high‑ and low‑end contrasts without always publishing a full ranked table [1] [3]. The Utah figure illustrates regional variation tied to demographic, economic, and policy differences—such as lower poverty rates, different state eligibility policies, or variations in program take‑up—that reporters note but do not fully analyze in every piece. The repetition across summaries suggests the Utah low‑rate claim is grounded in a consistent calculation, though readers should note the data cut and whether it’s fiscal‑year versus monthly snapshots.
3. The USDA’s official stance — extensive tables, not always headline rankings
USDA provides detailed SNAP participation tables and trend reports but typically publishes raw and rate data requiring user calculation rather than posting a single authoritative “top/bottom” state list for 2025; available data runs through January 2025 in the cited tables and earlier trend reports cover 1994–2022 [3] [4]. Journalists and analysts therefore extract state rates from those tables to produce summaries. The USDA’s approach reflects the agency’s role as a data provider rather than an interpretive outlet; official tables offer the most granular, reproducible basis for state comparisons, but they place the onus on outside analysts to decide the timeframe and whether to use fiscal‑year averages, monthly snapshots, or calendar‑year measures when ranking states.
4. Divergence among journalistic sources — overlap and omissions to watch
October 2025 news coverage consistently identifies states with the most recipients by count—California, Texas, New York—but those stories stress population size rather than participation rate, and thus do not substitute for per‑capita participation rankings [5]. Several outlets repeat the New Mexico high‑rate claim yet stop short of publishing a complete ranked table or clarifying whether figures are fiscal‑year or monthly averages [2] [6]. These reporting choices create the impression of consensus around New Mexico and Utah while leaving gaps: readers lack a single, contemporaneous ranked list derived explicitly from a specific USDA table. The absence of a uniform reporting convention accounts for slight percentage variances (21 vs. 21.2 percent) and for differing emphasis between counts and rates.
5. What remains unresolved and how to validate quickly
To confirm the highest and lowest participation rates definitively for any 2025 timeframe, analysts should extract state‑level SNAP enrollment and population denominators from the USDA SNAP Data Tables and compute rates for the chosen period (monthly or fiscal‑year) [3] [4]. The existing reporting reliably flags New Mexico near 21 percent and Utah near 4.8 percent, but the definitive ranking depends on the exact dataset and temporal aggregation chosen; USDA tables through January 2025 are the authoritative starting point [3]. Users seeking a single, unambiguous list should specify the period (FY2024, Jan 2025, or May 2025 monthly averages) and then compute rates from USDA tables to reproduce or challenge the journalistic summaries.