State Rankings
Compare states by total subsidies, per-capita spending, payment counts, and average payment size.
📊 Why State Rankings Matter
Farm subsidies are often discussed as a single national number — $147 billion over 9 years. But the story changes completely depending on how you rank states. Texas leads in raw dollars ($12.6B), but tiny North Dakota leads per capita. The difference reveals who farm policy is really designed to help.
Switch between the tabs above to see how rankings shift. States that rank high by total spending often drop when measured per capita, because large-population states like Texas and California have so many non-farming taxpayers that the per-person figure shrinks. Meanwhile, sparsely populated agricultural states like South Dakota and Montana surge to the top.
The policy implication: Every U.S. Senator has equal voting power on farm bills, regardless of state population. States with high per-capita subsidies — often with just 1-2 million residents — have outsized influence over $16+ billion in annual federal spending. Understanding these rankings is essential to understanding farm policy politics.