Dollars to doughnuts.CATHERINE RAMPELL
Dollars to doughnuts.
Here’s a map showing what share of families in each state received these benefits to help them buy food:
In Oregon, 17.8 percent of families received food stamps, officially known as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, the highest rate in the nation. Oregon was followed by Tennessee (17 percent) and Michigan (16.9 percent).
The state with the lowest SNAP participation rate was Wyoming, with a rate of 6.2 percent. The next-lowest rates were in New Jersey (6.8 percent) and California (7.4 percent).
I must admit I’m a bit puzzled by some of these numbers. I would have expected California’s food stamp take-up rate, for example, to be much higher, since its unemployment rate is 11.9 percent, the state is broke, and so many cities there suffered from housing busts.
I did a quick scatterplot showing the relationship between median household income and food stamp take-up rates, and the relationship is relatively weak:
The relationship between unemployment rates and food stamp take-up rates was even weaker:
Of course, there are a lot of variables not at all reflected by unemployment and median income figures, such as inequality and state safety net programs.
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