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What is the average SNAP benefit amount received by immigrant households in 2025?

Checked on October 28, 2025
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Found 8 sources

Executive summary — direct answer up front: The available reporting and analyses show no clear, published figure for the average SNAP benefit specifically received by immigrant households in 2025; existing documents report overall per-person or per-household averages and describe policy changes that affect immigrant families but do not disaggregate a definitive immigrant-household mean for 2025 [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]. Major recent pieces cite $187 per person (FY2025 estimate) and $351.28 average monthly per household in different contexts, and note an average cut of about $56 per household under a new law, but none of these sources state an explicit 2025 average just for immigrant households [1] [3] [2].

1. Why a straightforward immigrant-household SNAP average is missing — data gaps and reporting limits

News and policy summaries consistently report program-wide averages or example household amounts but do not publish a distinct immigrant-household mean for 2025, creating the gap that prompted your question. Multiple accounts note an average monthly benefit per person of $187 (presented as a FY2025 estimate) and a separate average monthly household benefit of about $351.28 for the 22 million households on SNAP, but they explicitly state that their reporting does not break out immigrant households or provide an immigrant-specific average [1] [3] [6]. Other pieces note that benefits vary by state and household size and offer illustrative calculations—such as a four-person household example receiving $554 at a specific income level—without converting state- or demographic-specific data into a nationwide immigrant-household average [4] [5]. The absence reflects both data-collection limits and data-release choices by agencies and journalists.

2. What the published averages do tell us about scale and impact on immigrant families

The published numbers provide a baseline for understanding likely magnitudes affecting immigrant households: $187 per person and $351.28 per household set the program-wide context, while reporting on recent legislative changes says the new law trims about $56 per household per month, which advocates warn will disproportionately affect newly arrived refugee and immigrant families who rely on SNAP in their first years [1] [3] [2]. These figures are useful for scenario-building: if immigrant households resemble the national distribution of household sizes and per-person benefits, their average would plausibly fall near the program averages, but that inference is not a substitute for a direct calculation. Reporting also emphasizes that benefits vary by household composition, state cost-of-living, and eligibility rules, underscoring why a single immigrant-household national mean is not present in these sources [5] [7].

3. Competing narratives and potential agendas in the coverage

Coverage splits between policy-descriptive reporting that focuses on program mechanics and advocacy-oriented pieces emphasizing harm to refugees and immigrants; both use the same baseline numbers but draw different policy conclusions. Advocacy reporting highlights that many refugee and immigrant families depend on SNAP during their first years and frames the $56 average household cut as a concrete harm to newcomers, an angle that signals an advocacy agenda aimed at preserving benefits [2]. More neutral or administrative accounts stress variability across states and households and focus on operational impacts of funding shortfalls or data-collection proposals, such as USDA requests for citizenship status data, which raises privacy and implementation concerns [8]. Both frames are factually grounded in the same program averages and legislative changes but differ in emphasis.

4. How one could obtain the missing immigrant-household average if needed

Because public sources cited here do not publish an immigrant-household mean, the necessary approach is a data synthesis using administrative SNAP records linked to immigration status—something the USDA and state agencies would hold but have not released in aggregate for 2025. Journalists and researchers would need either an agency-produced breakdown or a FOIA/data request for de-identified benefit amounts by recipient citizenship/immigration category and household composition, or an academic analysis of survey microdata that includes benefit receipt and nativity covariates. The existing reporting documents the program averages and policy changes as proximate inputs, which allows modeling but not a definitive, authoritative immigrant-household average without new data releases [6] [8] [2].

5. Bottom line and recommended next steps for verification

The bottom line: no source in the collected reporting gives an explicit 2025 average SNAP benefit for immigrant households; only program-wide averages and illustrative household amounts are published [1] [3] [4]. To verify or produce a precise immigrant-household average for 2025, request de-identified administrative data from USDA or state SNAP agencies, or seek a peer-reviewed analysis using microdata that includes immigration status. Meanwhile, use the published $187 per person and $351.28 per household as program-level benchmarks and treat the reported $56 average household reduction as the clearest quantified policy impact available in these sources [1] [3] [2].

Want to dive deeper?
What was the average SNAP benefit per household nationally in 2025 according to USDA?
How do SNAP eligibility rules for noncitizens in 2025 affect benefit amounts for immigrant households?
Which states had the highest average SNAP benefit for immigrant households in 2025 and why?
How did policy changes in 1996 and 2019 affect immigrant access to SNAP benefits through 2025?
Are mixed-status households more or less likely to receive full SNAP benefits in 2025 compared to all-citizen households?