# State SNAP benefit snapshot methodology

This file documents the public supporting CSVs and reproducible calculations for EBTCheckup's “Average SNAP Benefit by State” article.

- Participant counts: USDA Food and Nutrition Administration (FNA), `FY25.xlsx` in the *SNAP Monthly State Participation and Benefit Data Archive*, November 2024 `Persons` column, data as of July 10, 2026: https://www.fna.usda.gov/sites/default/files/resource-files/snap-zip-fy69tocurrent-7.zip
- Benefit totals: USDA FNA, the same workbook's November 2024 `Cost` column: https://www.fna.usda.gov/sites/default/files/resource-files/snap-zip-fy69tocurrent-7.zip
- Formula: `benefits_issued / participants`
- Display convention: nearest whole dollar
- Geography: 50 states and the District of Columbia; territories excluded from the article table

Both source tables say that data may include disaster assistance. November 2024 coincided with approved Hurricane Helene D-SNAP operations in Georgia and South Carolina. The resulting state values are descriptive program-level averages, not estimates of a typical household's regular allotment.

## Food-at-home inflation adjustment

- Annual SNAP averages: USDA FNA, *SNAP Participation and Costs, 1969–2025*: https://www.fna.usda.gov/sites/default/files/resource-files/snap-annualsummary-7.xlsx
- Inflation series: BLS CPI-U, U.S. city average, food at home, unadjusted, series `CUUR0000SAF11`: https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUUR0000SAF11
- Fiscal-year CPI: arithmetic mean of the 12 monthly observations from October through September
- Formula: `nominal benefit in year y * (FY 2025 food-at-home CPI / FY y food-at-home CPI)`
- Output unit: FY 2025 food-at-home dollars

The national trend starts with FY 2019 because it is the last complete federal fiscal year before the COVID-19 pandemic. FY 2020 spans October 2019 through September 2020 and therefore includes pandemic months. The FY 2019-to-FY 2025 comparison is the article's pre-COVID baseline; FY 2021 and FY 2022 remain pandemic-era context.

The monthly observations used in the calculation are saved in `bls-food-at-home-cpi.csv`. The fiscal-year inputs and results are saved in `annual-snap-participation-costs.csv` and `inflation-adjusted-benefits.csv`.

## Regional and metro food-price normalization

- Price source: USDA ERS, *Food-at-Home Monthly Area Prices*, 2018 weighted GEKS price indexes and weighted purchase dollars: https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-at-home-monthly-area-prices
- Geography: national, four Census regions, and all ten metropolitan areas provided by F-MAP
- Food groups: 89 of 90 F-MAP groups; alcohol excluded because it is not SNAP-eligible
- Monthly aggregate: Stone index, calculated as the purchase-share-weighted geometric mean of the included food-group indexes
- Area weights: each area-month uses its own purchase-dollar shares rather than a fixed national basket
- Annual aggregate: arithmetic mean of the 12 monthly Stone indexes for 2018
- Regional factor: `regional annual Stone index / national annual Stone index`
- Benefit normalization: `nominal benefit per participant / regional factor`
- Metro factor: `metro annual Stone index / national annual Stone index`
- Metro thought experiment: `$194.26 national snapshot benchmark / metro factor`

The actual regional benefit aggregates use the November 2024 state snapshot in `november-2024-state-snapshot.csv` and the same Census-region geography as F-MAP, including Alaska and Hawaii in the West. The mixed vitamins-and-meal-supplements group remains in the basket because it includes some foods whose eligibility depends on whether they carry a Nutrition Facts or Supplement Facts label. This means the basket is approximate rather than a definitive basket of SNAP-eligible products. Because each area-month has its own purchase shares, differences in the constructed indexes can reflect differences in basket mix as well as price. The output is saved in `regional-food-price-normalization.csv`.

USDA's state benefit tables do not provide matching metro-level totals. The metro calculation therefore applies the same reader-visible $194.26 national benchmark to every metro. It includes the complete set of ten F-MAP metros and sorts them from the highest to lowest constructed food-at-home index. Principal-city region labels are editorial groupings; some official metro definitions cross state or Census-region boundaries. The output is saved in `metro-food-price-benchmarks.csv`.

Both regional and metro results are spatial normalizations of November 2024 nominal dollars. They apply 2018 geographic price relationships but do not deflate November 2024 benefit amounts into 2018 dollars.

F-MAP ends in 2018, uses weighted retail scanner data from a nonprobability store sample, and provides only broad Census-region coverage outside its ten metropolitan areas. The results are retrospective, illustrative food-price normalizations—not current state, regional, or metro price estimates or complete cost-of-living adjustments. The ten covered metros are not nationally representative.

Data and calculations were checked July 19, 2026. The annual, monthly CPI, state, regional, and metro CSVs published beside this note contain the inputs and derived values described above.