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How does Black or African American SNAP enrollment compare to White enrollment across states in 2022?
Executive Summary
Black or African American individuals were substantially more likely, on a per-capita basis, to receive SNAP in 2022 than non‑Hispanic White individuals, with multiple analyses reporting rates in the 20–25% range for Black people versus roughly 7–10% for White people; however, Whites still made up the largest share of SNAP recipients in absolute numbers because the White population is larger. State-level SNAP participation varied widely in 2022, and publicly available national reports do not consistently provide a full racial breakdown by state, leaving important gaps for a precise state-by-state racial comparison [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. What claimers said — unpacking the competing assertions that matter
The primary claims in the materials are twofold and superficially contradictory: first, that Black or African American people receive SNAP at a higher rate than White people (given as roughly 24–25% vs. about 7–10%), and second, that more White people are enrolled in SNAP overall because Whites are a larger share of the U.S. population. The 2025 news article framed both points by reporting that 24.4% of Black people and 9.7% of White people received benefits in 2022 and also noting that roughly 35% of SNAP recipients were White, which aligns with the population composition explanation [2]. A 2023 analysis using Census data produced a similar per‑capita disparity—about 24.91% of Black households versus 7.85% of non‑Hispanic White households—emphasizing that racial disparities reflect differential poverty rates and structural factors [1]. At the same time, several official USDA/FNS publications describing Fiscal Year 2022 SNAP households focus on overall characteristics without supplying a full racial-by-state matrix, which complicates direct state-level racial comparisons [5] [4].
2. National patterns: per-capita rates versus absolute counts — the clearest signal
Multiple sources converge on the central factual pattern: on a per-capita basis, Black households and individuals participate in SNAP at much higher rates than non‑Hispanic White households, often by roughly threefold. The 2023 Census‑based analysis reported about 24.91% Black household participation versus 7.85% non‑Hispanic White household participation [1]. The November 2025 article cited similar percentages (24.4% Black, 9.7% White) and explicitly explained that the higher share of White SNAP recipients in absolute terms stems from population size rather than higher per‑capita need [2]. USDA/FNS national summaries for FY2022 confirm SNAP’s concentration among low‑income households but do not provide the racial breakdown needed to refute or refine these per‑capita figures in every official release, which is why independent Census analyses remain central to assessing racial differences [5].
3. State-level variation and the evidence gap that matters for comparisons
State SNAP participation rates in 2022 varied considerably—some regions like the Midwest showed higher overall participation rates—yet most FNS reports do not present a reliable racial breakdown by state for 2022, limiting the ability to map the national per‑capita disparities onto every state’s enrollment profile [3] [4]. The FNS “Reaching Those in Need” materials estimate state participation rates and highlight statistically significant over‑ and under‑performance relative to the national average, but those documents explicitly lack consistent race-by-state enrollment rates in the public releases reviewed here [3] [4]. Independent compilations and demographic websites offer numbers such as 4.1 million Black households participating in SNAP in 2022 (about 24% of Black households) versus 6.8 million White households in total, yet they do not provide an authoritative state-by-state racial comparison vetted against FNS microdata [6] [1].
4. Reconciling different metrics: percent of group versus share of program
The apparent contradiction—higher percentage participation among Black people but a larger number of White enrollees—resolves when distinguishing two metrics. “Percent of group” measures participation rate within each racial population and shows Black households are disproportionately likely to use SNAP (roughly 20–25% in cited analyses), while “share of program” measures the racial composition of all SNAP recipients and often shows Whites as the largest single group by count because the non‑Hispanic White population is larger overall [1] [2]. The FNS national household characteristics reports corroborate SNAP’s role among low‑income populations but do not provide the disaggregated racial data needed to calculate these ratios for every state, so analysts rely on Census and secondary analyses to compute per‑group participation rates [5].
5. Bottom line: what is settled and what still needs data
It is settled that Black households were more likely than White households to participate in SNAP in 2022, with independent analyses placing Black household participation in the low‑ to mid‑20s percent and non‑Hispanic White participation in the high single digits [1] [2]. It is also factual that Whites constitute a large share of SNAP recipients in absolute numbers because of population composition [2] [6]. What remains unresolved for a precise state-by-state racial comparison is the absence of a single authoritative FNS dataset publicly released in FY2022 that pairs state SNAP enrollment with race in a standardized way; addressing that gap requires either access to FNS microdata or state administrative race/ethnicity enrollment releases not aggregated in the cited national reports [3] [4].