States Most & Least Affected by the Government Shutdown
Thursday, October 16th, 2025
With the U.S. government experiencing its 23rd funding lapse since 1976 – and its 11th actual shutdown – this time a partial one, the personal-finance company WalletHub today released its report on the States Most & Least Affected by the 2025 Government Shutdown to add some hard data to all the rhetoric.
WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia in terms of five key metrics, ranging from each state’s share of federal jobs to federal contract dollars per capita to the share of families receiving food stamps.
|
States Most Affected by the Gov. Shutdown |
States Least Affected by the Gov. Shutdown |
|
1. District of Columbia |
42. Arkansas |
|
2. Hawaii |
43. North Dakota |
|
3. New Mexico |
44. Kansas |
|
4. Alaska |
45. New Jersey |
|
5. Maryland |
46. Wisconsin |
|
6. Virginia |
47. New Hampshire |
|
7. West Virginia |
48. Nebraska |
|
8. Alabama |
49. Indiana |
|
9. Oklahoma |
50. Iowa |
|
10. Arizona |
51. Minnesota |
Key Stats
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Red states are less affected by the government shutdown than Blue states, ranking 26.97 and 24.50, respectively, on average. (Lower rank = greater impact).
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New Mexico has the highest share of families receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance, 20.33 percent. That’s 4.1 times higher than in Wyoming, the state with the lowest at 4.9 percent.
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Wisconsin has the lowest share of federal jobs, at 1.07 percent. The average state has 2.4 times more federal jobs, at 2.62 percent.
To view the full report and your state’s rank, please visit:
https://wallethub.com/edu/
