41.8 Million Americans Used Food Stamps in July

Number of Americans Receiving Food Stamps Continues to March Higher

For the 20th month in a row, participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) has increased.

In July of 2010, 41,836,330 Americans received subsidies for food purchases, up 1.4% from the month before.

Participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program has dramatically increased over the past year. In July of 2009, 35,602,939 Americans took part in the program, which means that the total number of Americans who are receiving food stamps is up by over 6 million in the past year. This represents an increase of about 17.5%.

The population of the United States is currently about 307 million people, which means that over 13.6% of the American public is currently receiving assistance through SNAP. This is a remarkably high number for the "richest" country in the world.

Things are expected to get even worse, as the White House is currently estimating that there will be an average of 43.3 million Americans receiving food subsidies over the next 12 months.

The reasons for the dramatic uptick in food stamp recipients is readily apparent when you look at the current state of the economy in the United States. The national unemployment rate is currently hovering around 10%, and has been for quite some time. Many American households have severely depleted their savings in order to make ends meet, and "help" via the padding of credit card balances is much harder to come by nowadays, due to a lack of available credit.

With the national unemployment rate expected to remain at 10% throughout the entirety of 2011, you can safely assume that SNAP enrollment figures will continue to climb in the months ahead.

SNAP Program usage statistics 2007 - 2010