State profileFiscal year 2025Federal awards
How much federal money does Iowa get?
Iowa received $36.4 billion in federal money in FY2025: $11,242 per person, 32nd of 51.In fiscal year 2025 (October 2024 to September 2025), federal agencies obligated $36.4 billion in contracts, grants, loans and direct payments with a place of performance in Iowa, or $11,242 per resident.
Iowa ranks 32nd 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 12.9% from FY2024 ($32.2 billion). Compared with FY2019, the last year before pandemic relief, it is up 50.4%. The largest share came as direct payments ($20.9 billion, 57.3% of the total). The agency obligating the most was the Social Security Administration with $16.6 billion, and the biggest single program was Social Security Retirement Insurance (Assistance Listing 96.002) at $13.6 billion. Among the 50 states and DC, Iowa ranks 33rd by total and 32nd per resident (full ranking).
For FY2026, which ended on 30 September 2026, $32.7 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, $117.7 million of Medicare payments was recorded in this state; it is not in the figures on this page.
Federal money to Iowa by year
Iowa: $36B in FY2025, up 50% 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 | $2.2B | $6.4B | $13.2B | -$22.8M | $727.7M | $22.4B | – |
| FY2019 | $2.4B | $6.5B | $14.6B | -$28.4M | $760.0M | $24.2B | – |
| FY2020 | $2.8B | $8.5B | $18.0B | $5.3B | $1.3B | $35.9B | $11,254 |
| FY2021 | $2.5B | $10.9B | $19.9B | $3.1B | $1.2B | $37.8B | $11,803 |
| FY2022 | $2.7B | $9.4B | $16.2B | $51.6M | $2.1B | $30.4B | $9,492 |
| FY2023 | $3.4B | $9.0B | $17.4B | -$6.3M | $998.9M | $30.8B | $9,579 |
| FY2024 | $3.0B | $10.2B | $18.8B | $18.2M | $188.1M | $32.2B | $9,980 |
| FY2025 | $3.6B | $11.8B | $20.9B | $17.8M | $116.6M | $36.4B | $11,242 |
| FY2026* | $1.9B | $10.7B | $20.0B | $7.1M | $117.4M | $32.7B | – |
Source: USAspending.gov (U.S. Treasury).
How Iowa compares
Federal money per resident: Iowa and its neighbouring states
FY2025, dollars per resident. Grey bars are other states; the dark bar is the US average.
| South Dakota | $12,162 |
| Missouri | $11,837 |
| US average (50 states + DC) | $11,781 |
| Iowa (this page) | $11,242 |
| Nebraska | $10,810 |
| Wisconsin | $10,330 |
| Minnesota | $10,328 |
| Illinois | $9,850 |
Who pays and for what, FY2025
The agencies that obligated the most to Iowa, 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 | $16.6 billion | 45.7% |
| Department of Health and Human Services | $8.0 billion | 21.9% |
| Department of Defense | $3.0 billion | 8.1% |
| Department of Agriculture | $2.6 billion | 7.2% |
| Department of Veterans Affairs | $1.6 billion | 4.3% |
| Department of Transportation | $1.3 billion | 3.6% |
| Department of Education | $718.9 million | 2.0% |
| Department of Housing and Urban Development | $518.6 million | 1.4% |
| Department of Commerce | $423.4 million | 1.2% |
| Department of Energy | $315.7 million | 0.9% |
Top programs
| Program | FY2025 | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Social Security Retirement Insurance Assistance Listing 96.002 | $13.6 billion | 37.4% |
| Grants to States for Medicaid Assistance Listing 93.778 | $6.9 billion | 18.8% |
| Social Security Disability Insurance Assistance Listing 96.001 | $1.5 billion | 4.1% |
| Veterans Compensation for Service-Connected Disability Assistance Listing 64.109 | $1.2 billion | 3.4% |
| Social Security Survivors Insurance Assistance Listing 96.004 | $1.1 billion | 3.0% |
| Highway Planning and Construction Assistance Listing 20.205 | $841.1 million | 2.3% |
| Emergency Commodity Assistance Program Assistance Listing 10.121 | $828.7 million | 2.3% |
| Supplemental Disaster Relief Program Assistance Listing 10.988 | $537.5 million | 1.5% |
| Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Assistance Listing 10.551 | $496.0 million | 1.4% |
| Supplemental Security Income Assistance Listing 96.006 | $433.9 million | 1.2% |
Where the money goes inside Iowa
Cities and universities with their own pages, by FY2025 federal awards.
Universities and colleges in Iowa
Questions and answers
- How much federal money did Iowa get in 2025?
- In fiscal year 2025, federal agencies obligated $36.4 billion in awards with a place of performance in Iowa, according to USAspending.gov.
- How much federal money does Iowa get per person?
- About $11,242 per resident in FY2025, using the Census Bureau's July 2025 population estimate of 3,238,387.
- Which federal agency spends the most in Iowa?
- The Social Security Administration, with $16.6 billion in FY2025 (45.7% of the total).
- What is the largest federal program in Iowa?
- Social Security Retirement Insurance (Assistance Listing 96.002), with $13.6 billion obligated in FY2025.
- Has federal spending in Iowa gone up?
- Yes. FY2025 obligations of $36.4 billion compare with $24.2 billion in FY2019, a change of 50.4%.
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 = IA, 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.