State profileFiscal year 2025Federal awards
How much federal money does California get?
California received $440.4 billion in federal money in FY2025: $11,189 per person, 33rd of 51.In fiscal year 2025 (October 2024 to September 2025), federal agencies obligated $440.4 billion in contracts, grants, loans and direct payments with a place of performance in California, or $11,189 per resident.
California ranks 33rd of 51 per resident
Federal awards per resident, FY2025, 50 states and DC, highest to lowest. Dashed line: US average.
What the money is
That is up 8.4% from FY2024 ($406.3 billion). Compared with FY2019, the last year before pandemic relief, it is up 54.3%. The largest share came as direct payments ($205.9 billion, 46.8% of the total). The agency obligating the most was the Social Security Administration with $157.5 billion, and the biggest single program was Social Security Retirement Insurance (Assistance Listing 96.002) at $127.5 billion. Among the 50 states and DC, California ranks 1st by total and 33rd per resident (full ranking).
For FY2026, which ended on 30 September 2026, $423.3 billion has been reported so far. That figure will rise as late reports arrive, so the comparisons on this page use FY2025, the latest complete year.
These are award obligations recorded on USAspending.gov, the official source for federal award data. They include Social Security and other direct payments, Medicaid and other grants to the state, and federal contracts performed there. They do not include federal salaries, interest on the debt, or tax refunds.
Medicare is left out. USAspending records Medicare benefit payments (Parts A, B and D) at the location of the contractor that processes the claims, not where patients live, so they would distort this state. In FY2025, $45.4 billion of Medicare payments was recorded in this state; it is not in the figures on this page.
Federal money to California by year
California: $440B in FY2025, up 54% 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 | $57.6B | $101.7B | $125.5B | $140.5M | $5.9B | $290.8B | – |
| FY2019 | $61.1B | $87.3B | $132.7B | -$1.7B | $6.0B | $285.5B | – |
| FY2020 | $59.5B | $123.5B | $172.3B | $72.2B | $6.1B | $433.7B | $10,971 |
| FY2021 | $52.1B | $173.0B | $211.6B | $34.7B | $6.6B | $478.0B | $12,207 |
| FY2022 | $57.5B | $152.8B | $167.2B | $462.0M | $7.2B | $385.3B | $9,847 |
| FY2023 | $61.5B | $139.0B | $181.5B | -$1.5B | $3.2B | $383.6B | $9,790 |
| FY2024 | $61.7B | $158.3B | $186.4B | -$789.1M | $707.3M | $406.3B | $10,322 |
| FY2025 | $62.0B | $171.8B | $205.9B | $35.7M | $530.3M | $440.4B | $11,189 |
| FY2026* | $55.9B | $164.9B | $203.0B | -$1.2B | $653.7M | $423.3B | – |
Source: USAspending.gov (U.S. Treasury).
How California compares
Who pays and for what, FY2025
The agencies that obligated the most to California, 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Social Security Administration | $157.5 billion | 35.8% |
| Department of Health and Human Services | $130.5 billion | 29.6% |
| Department of Defense | $39.9 billion | 9.1% |
| Department of Veterans Affairs | $21.9 billion | 5.0% |
| Department of Agriculture | $21.6 billion | 4.9% |
| Department of Education | $11.3 billion | 2.6% |
| Department of Housing and Urban Development | $10.1 billion | 2.3% |
| Department of Transportation | $9.4 billion | 2.1% |
| Department of Energy | $9.0 billion | 2.1% |
| Department of Homeland Security | $9.0 billion | 2.0% |
Top programs
| Program | FY2025 | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Social Security Retirement Insurance Assistance Listing 96.002 | $127.5 billion | 28.9% |
| Grants to States for Medicaid Assistance Listing 93.778 | $107.8 billion | 24.5% |
| Veterans Compensation for Service-Connected Disability Assistance Listing 64.109 | $13.8 billion | 3.1% |
| Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Assistance Listing 10.551 | $11.6 billion | 2.6% |
| Social Security Disability Insurance Assistance Listing 96.001 | $11.2 billion | 2.6% |
| Social Security Survivors Insurance Assistance Listing 96.004 | $10.5 billion | 2.4% |
| Supplemental Security Income Assistance Listing 96.006 | $8.2 billion | 1.9% |
| Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers Assistance Listing 14.871 | $7.4 billion | 1.7% |
| Highway Planning and Construction Assistance Listing 20.205 | $6.3 billion | 1.4% |
| Disaster Grants - Public Assistance (Presidentially Declared Disasters) Assistance Listing 97.036 | $5.5 billion | 1.2% |
Where the money goes inside California
Cities and universities with their own pages, by FY2025 federal awards.
Cities in California
- San Diego$11B
- Sacramento$7.8B
- San Francisco$4.8B
- Los Angeles$4.6B
- Long Beach$3B
- Irvine$1.7B
- San Jose$1.3B
- Oakland$1.3B
Universities and colleges in California
- California Institute of Technology$2.6B
- Stanford University$1.6B
- University of California (Oakland)$1.3B
- University of California, San Diego$1.1B
- University of California, San Francisco$934M
- University of California, Los Angeles$832M
- University of Southern California$549M
- University of California, Davis$532M
Questions and answers
- How much federal money did California get in 2025?
- In fiscal year 2025, federal agencies obligated $440.4 billion in awards with a place of performance in California, according to USAspending.gov.
- How much federal money does California get per person?
- About $11,189 per resident in FY2025, using the Census Bureau's July 2025 population estimate of 39,355,309.
- Which federal agency spends the most in California?
- The Social Security Administration, with $157.5 billion in FY2025 (35.8% of the total).
- What is the largest federal program in California?
- Social Security Retirement Insurance (Assistance Listing 96.002), with $127.5 billion obligated in FY2025.
- Has federal spending in California gone up?
- Yes. FY2025 obligations of $440.4 billion compare with $285.5 billion in FY2019, a change of 54.3%.
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 state = CA, fiscal years 2018–2026. Amounts are obligations in nominal dollars. Data retrieved 2026-10-04. Public domain.
- U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 population estimates (July 1 of each year). Per-resident figures use the estimate for the July inside the fiscal year.
- How the figures are built, and what they leave out: sources and methods.