NPP's new analysis on 2004 county-level data and statistics focuses on the distribution of Food Stamp. Research findings include:

• Half of all low-income people did not receive Food Stamp Program benefits.
• Counties with lower poverty rates and higher median household incomes had lower percentages of low-income people that were Food Stamp recipients.
• A significant number of counties, 13.2 percent, had below-average percentages of Food Stamps, yet had above-average poverty rates.
• The rural South had the highest percentage of enrollment in the Food Stamp program and more than half of all children were eligible for lunches through the National School Lunch Program.

Click here [1] for the entire report including regional and county-level tables.

Click here [2]to view an alternative state ranking which treats California under a different methology.

County-level data and statistics can be found on the NPP Database [3]. For datasets specific to this release, select "Hunger" as the issue area.