The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) provides nutrition assistance to eligible low-income individuals and households in need. This report is the latest in a series on SNAP participation rates, which estimate the proportion of people eligible for benefits under federal income and asset rules to those who actually participate in the program. This report presents rates for fiscal year (FY) 2022 and re-estimated rates for pre-pandemic FY 2020 using new weights released by the Census Bureau for the 2020 Census. These rates should not be compared to any prior estimates due to the updated weights used.
Because the COVID-19 public health emergency affected data collection starting in March 2020, the FY 2020 rates cover only the pre-pandemic period of October 2019 through February 2020. Using 5 rather than 12 months of data resulted in an overestimate of SNAP eligibility and thus an underestimate of the SNAP participation rate in pre-pandemic FY 20. Therefore, readers should also use caution when interpreting the pre-pandemic FY 20 participation rates and when comparing these rates to the FY 22 participation rates. There are no estimated participation rates for FY 21 due to suspended data collection during the COVID-19 public health emergency.
Key Findings
- SNAP served 88 percent of all eligible individuals in FY 22, which is the highest in the nearly 50-year history of estimating SNAP participation rates.
- Individuals with greater need, like those with no or very low incomes, participated at higher rates than other eligible individuals in FY 22.
- Elderly individuals participated at lower rates than other eligible individuals in FY 22.