A new survey by the Wall Street Journal shows Oregon and Washington outpace the use of food stamps compared to the national average–Oregon by a staggering amount. Nationally, 15% of the population is on the SNAP (food stamp) program while Washington State’s use is at 16% and a full 21% of Oregonians are getting government food assistance in the SNAP program. The Journal says Oregon’s 21% rate represents a slight drop!

816,010 people in Oregon are on food stamps. That’s half the number of the people employed in the state which stands at 1.6 million full and part-time workers. Half. 

Oregon is tied for third in food stamp use behind Mississippi and the District of Columbia and the unemployment rate is the fourth worst in the nation and it is the third highest in the use of food stamps. 

According to the Journal,

Food-stamp use rose 2.4% in the U.S. in May from a year earlier, with more than 15% of the U.S. population receiving benefits. (See an interactive map with data on use since 1990.)

One of the federal government’s biggest social welfare programs, which expanded when the economy convulsed, isn’t shrinking back alongside the recovery.

Food stamp rolls were up 0.2% from the prior month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported in data that aren’t adjusted for seasonal variations. Though annual growth continues, the pace has slowed since the depths of the recession.

The number of recipients in the food stamp program, formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), is at 47.6 million, or nearly one in six Americans.