Posted Nov 17, 2011, 12:49 pm
More than 1.1 million Arizona residents—more than 17 percent of the state's population—are receiving food assistance from the government.
1,123,333 Arizonans are on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), a jump of 7.2 percent over the past year. That's 17.5 percent of the state's residents, according to the Department of Agriculture.
Arizona recipients receive $200 monthly for a single-person household. An eligible family of four receives $668 from the state's Healthy Nutrition program, Arizona's implementation of SNAP.
Almost 12 percent of households nationwide are receiving food stamps, the Census Bureau said Thursday. Recent data from the Agriculture Department, which runs the program, show that up to 15 percent of households in the country may be on SNAP.
Nationally, the number on food stamp rolls rose 8.1 percent over the past year.
A combination of an increase in benefits, a change in eligibility requirements, and the worsening economy mean SNAP cast twice as much in 2010 as it did in 2007, before the recession hit home, an Agriculture report said.
The economic downturn alone would account for an 18-percent increase in food stamp recipients.
The state with the largest percentage on food relief: Oregon, with 18 percent of its population on SNAP. Louisiana, New Mexico and Tennessee each have one in five residents on food stamps.
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Nevada, Idaho and Rhode Island had the greatest increases in the rate of food stamp use.
Latest comments on this storyRead all 5 »
Gotcha ... I’ll write to the editor to tell him to clean up those confusing passages. ;-)
The Census data was through August, while data from Ag show that the number may be even higher.
The sentence about LA, NM & TN should probably have had a “nearly” in it.
As with most near-term gov’t statistics, these are essentially estimates. It takes a while to sort out exact figures; generally 12-18 months.
That was the sense I got, but the statistics are confusing, e.g. “Almost 12 percent of households nationwide are receiving food stamps, the Census Bureau said Thursday. Recent data from the Agriculture Department, which runs the program, show that up to 15 percent of households in the country may be on SNAP.”
If food stamps = SNAP, why are the numbers different?
Similarly, “The state with the largest percentage on food relief: Oregon, with 18 percent of its population on SNAP. Louisiana, New Mexico and Tennessee each have one in five residents on food stamps.”
If Oregon has the largest percentage at 18%, how can the other states have a larger percentage (20%)?