City profileNorth CarolinaFiscal year 2025
How much federal money does Winston-Salem get?
Winston-Salem received $386.9 million in federal awards in FY2025: $1,504 per resident, 84th of 99 large cities by total.In fiscal year 2025, federal agencies obligated $386.9 million in awards whose place of performance is Winston-Salem, NC, about $1,504 per resident.
Winston-Salem is 77th of 99 large cities per resident
Federal awards per resident, FY2025, the 99 largest US cities on this site. Dashed line: median city.
What the money is
That is down 6.4% from FY2024 ($413.1 million). Compared with FY2019, the last year before pandemic relief, it is up 16.1%. The largest share came as grants ($220.9 million). The Department of Health and Human Services obligated the most ($173.7 million), and the largest program was Federal Pell Grant Program ($57.0 million). By this measure Winston-Salem ranks 84th of the 99 large US cities on this site.
What is counted: contracts, grants, loans and payments that agencies report with this city as the place of performance (USAspending.gov city names WINSTON-SALEM and WINSTON SALEM, state NC). Payments to individuals, such as Social Security, are published only as county totals to protect privacy, so most of them do not show up at city level. For the full picture see the North Carolina page, which includes those payments.
Federal money to Winston-Salem by year
Winston-Salem: $387M in FY2025, up 16% on FY2019
Federal award obligations by fiscal year and type, FY2018–FY2026, nominal dollars. FY26* is preliminary and still filling in.
- Insurance and other
- Loans (subsidy cost)
- Direct payments
- Grants
- Contracts
View every year as a table
| Fiscal year | Contracts | Grants | Direct payments | Loans | Insurance and other | Total | Per resident |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2018 | $41.0M | $163.9M | $76.0M | $48,331 | $121,872 | $281.1M | – |
| FY2019 | $86.8M | $169.7M | $76.3M | $149,354 | $239,983 | $333.1M | – |
| FY2020 | $375.8M | $241.2M | $80.4M | $631,118 | -$199,999 | $697.9M | $2,800 |
| FY2021 | $40.9M | $323.0M | $142.2M | $460,062 | -$672,503 | $505.9M | $2,020 |
| FY2022 | $72.4M | $187.9M | $75.6M | $72,020 | $1.0M | $337.0M | $1,341 |
| FY2023 | $89.4M | $227.3M | $84.1M | -$136,293 | $330,356 | $401.0M | $1,583 |
| FY2024 | $80.5M | $234.8M | $97.3M | $111,241 | $328,256 | $413.1M | $1,616 |
| FY2025 | $45.6M | $220.9M | $118.7M | $1.6M | $93,600 | $386.9M | $1,504 |
| FY2026* | $58.9M | $209.9M | $119.9M | $227,267 | $5,231 | $388.9M | – |
Source: USAspending.gov (U.S. Treasury).
Cities with similar totals
Winston-Salem and the cities ranked either side of it
FY2025 federal awards performed in each city, total dollars.
| Chandler, AZ | $486.5 million |
| Bakersfield, CA | $480.8 million |
| Winston-Salem, NC (this page) | $386.9 million |
| Corpus Christi, TX | $353.3 million |
| Lubbock, TX | $341.5 million |
Who pays and for what, FY2025
The agencies that obligated the most to Winston-Salem, and the largest federal programs. Programs are federal Assistance Listings (formerly CFDA numbers); contracts have no listing number, so they do not appear there.
Top awarding agencies
| Agency | FY2025 | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Health and Human Services | $173.7 million | 44.9% |
| Department of Education | $82.6 million | 21.4% |
| Department of Housing and Urban Development | $75.4 million | 19.5% |
| Department of Defense | $31.5 million | 8.1% |
| Department of Justice | $5.2 million | 1.3% |
| Department of Commerce | $4.1 million | 1.1% |
| National Science Foundation | $4.0 million | 1.0% |
| Department of Veterans Affairs | $2.6 million | 0.7% |
| Department of Agriculture | $1.7 million | 0.4% |
| Federal Communications Commission | $1.6 million | 0.4% |
Top programs
| Program | FY2025 | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Federal Pell Grant Program Assistance Listing 84.063 | $57.0 million | 14.7% |
| Aging Research Assistance Listing 93.866 | $45.3 million | 11.7% |
| Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers Assistance Listing 14.871 | $41.4 million | 10.7% |
| Higher Education Institutional Aid Assistance Listing 84.031 | $15.5 million | 4.0% |
| Drug Use and Addiction Research Programs Assistance Listing 93.279 | $14.0 million | 3.6% |
| Cardiovascular Diseases Research Assistance Listing 93.837 | $11.8 million | 3.0% |
| Project-Based Rental Assistance (PBRA) Assistance Listing 14.195 | $11.4 million | 2.9% |
| Military Medical Research and Development Assistance Listing 12.420 | $10.2 million | 2.6% |
| Trans-NIH Research Support Assistance Listing 93.310 | $9.4 million | 2.4% |
| Diabetes, Digestive, and Kidney Diseases Extramural Research Assistance Listing 93.847 | $7.8 million | 2.0% |
Nearby on this site
Other cities in North Carolina
- Charlotte$927M
- Raleigh$7.2B
- Greensboro$552M
- Durham$2.2B
Universities in Winston-Salem
Questions and answers
- How much federal money does Winston-Salem get?
- $386.9 million in FY2025 in awards performed in Winston-Salem, NC, according to USAspending.gov. That excludes most payments to individuals, which are published only by county.
- How much is that per resident?
- About $1,504 per resident, using the Census Bureau's July 2025 estimate of 257,271 people.
- Which agency spends the most in Winston-Salem?
- The Department of Health and Human Services, with $173.7 million in FY2025.
Sources and notes
- USAspending.gov (U.S. Department of the Treasury), API endpoints spending_over_time and spending_by_category, filtered by place of performance city (WINSTON-SALEM, WINSTON SALEM) in NC, fiscal years 2018–2026. Amounts are obligations in nominal dollars. Data retrieved 2026-10-04. Public domain.
- U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 city estimates (Winston-Salem city).
- How the figures are built, and what they leave out: sources and methods.