Map Shows Where SNAP Benefit Participation Is Plummeting Fastest

Millions of Americans have lost SNAP benefits since Republicans passed President Donald Trump’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) last year, according to a new study, undermining one of the most effective anti-hunger programs in the nation. Newsweek has contacted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration by email outside of working hours for comment. Why It Matters The 60-year Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as SNAP, helps more than 42 million Americans put food on the table each month.

Roughly 70 percent of participants are among the most vulnerable individuals in our society—the elderly, disabled, or children—and participation tends to be higher in the southern and southwestern parts of the country. The budget reconciliation bill signed into law by Trump last year, the OBBB, included structural changes to the program that experts predicted would cause SNAP to be less effective and responsive in times of deteriorating economic conditions, as the nonprofit public policy organization Brookings Institution wrote in October. Among these are an expansion of the work requirement to new groups of recipients, which is expected to reduce eligibility, and a shift of significant program cost from the federal government onto states.

This transfer of responsibility "will almost certainly lead some states to cut SNAP participation substantially and is likely to lead other states to end their participation in the program entirely," Brookings experts wrote last year. New research now shows that participation has, indeed, already declined. What To Know A study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) published on Wednesday found that SNAP participation nationwide fell by 2.5 million people—or 6 percent—between July 2025, when changes came into effect, and December 2025, the latest month of data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The Food Research & Action Center (FRAC), a private, nonprofit organization, puts the number of SNAP participants dropped by the program over the past year even higher, at 3.3 million.

In 28 states and one territory, SNAP participation fell by more than 5 percent since the introduction of the OBBB, the CBPP found. The declines are especially pronounced in Arizona, where participation plunged by 32 percent according to USDA data and by 47 percent based on more recent state data, and in Virginia, where it fell by 12 percent.

In these states, the center writes, the declines started even before the Republican megabill, officially known as H. R. 1, was passed—suggesting there might be other factors at play in addition to the law.

In many other states, however, recent declines can be traced back solely to the implementation of the law.

According to estimates by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), cuts included in the OBBB would strip SNAP of nearly $187 billion through 2034, the largest cut to the program in history. This cut will cause more than 2.4 million people to be cut off from the program in a typical month. The CBPP estimates that, considering people losing a substantial amount, but not all, of their SNAP benefits, 4 million Americans will lose out on the program once the OBBB changes are fully implemented.

What People Are Saying Joseph Palomino, executive director of the Arizona Center for Economic Progress, a nonpartisan advocacy organization, told ProPublica about the drop in SNAP participation in the state: "

Arizona is just the alarm bell. This is likely going to happen in every state." FRAC wrote in a recent report: ”

People are being cut off [from SNAP] not because they no longer qualify, but because the system is designed in a way that makes maintaining eligibility increasingly difficult. "

As households experience delays, confusion, and failed attempts to access assistance—especially following the disruption during the 2025 government shutdown—trust in the program will deteriorate. Participation will decline further as people disengage from a system they no longer believe will work for them." Sara Bleich, professor of public health policy at the Harvard T.

H. Chan School of Public Health, the Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and a faculty member at the Kennedy School, told Harvard Kennedy School last year of the changes to SNAP included in the OBBB: "

Taken together, these changes will result in millions of people losing access to SNAP, eliminating a vital lifeline for many families." What Happens Next In its report, the CBPP wrote that it expects SNAP participation to continue falling across the country as states implement the changes included in the OBBB. Starting in 2027, most states will have to pay between 5 and 15 percent of SNAP benefit costs, which will cost many "hundreds of millions of dollars a year," the CBPP said.

The amount a state will have to pay will be based on current error rates, which might lead these same states to "take drastic measures to reduce their payment error rates quickly and cut program costs," the center wrote, "even if it means delaying or improperly denying benefits to eligible people.”