How dependent on the federal government are we here in America? Well, it depends on what state you visit.

The website WalletHub recently did a study to figure out the states that are the most and least federally dependent. The two key dimensions used to determine the list are “State Residents’ Dependency” and “State Government’s Dependency.” The article states:

"For years, Americans have looked at federal assistance programs with growing scrutiny, and under the current administration, the number of people dependent on government assistance was decreasing prior to the coronavirus crisis. Regardless of overall trends, though, it is clear that some states receive a far higher return on their federal income-tax contributions than others."

Iowa was number 47 out of all 50 states, making us the 4th least dependent on the federal government. The only states to beat us were Kansas, New Jersey, and Delaware. In the category of “State Residents’ Dependency” we came in 30th, and for “State Government’s Dependency” we were 47th.

Our Midwest neighbors were all over the list. Missouri was ranked 17th, South Dakota was 20th, Wisconsin was 33rd, Nebraska was 39th, Minnesota was 43rd, and Illinois was 45th.

The states that were found to be most federally dependent are:

  1. New Mexico
  2. Kentucky
  3. Mississippi
  4. West Virginia
  5. Montana

Another interesting piece of information the study found is that, on average, blue states are less dependent on the federal government than red states. They determined the blue and red states based on how each voted in the 2016 presidential election.

Check out more results from the study HERE.

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