Red-highlighted counties are in the top 100 ranked by percent of population receiving nutrition assistance through SNAP. The counties cluster in Central Appalachian coal country, the South's Black Crescent and Mississippi Delta and tribal lands in the West and Alaska. Large metropolitan counties that are part of the list are the the Bronx, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and one outlying county of the Memphis metro area. (2015, U.S. Census)

The counties that are most reliant on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program tend to be rural.

See Related Story: The Geography of Food Stamps

Here’s a list of the top 100 counties ranked by percent of population enrolled in SNAP. In the highest-ranked counties, more than half the population receives nutrition assistance. At the bottom of the list, about a third of a county’s population receives SNAP.

Eighty-five of the top 100 counties are rural.

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