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Arkansas vs Virginia

Federal spending comparison

Arkansas’s federal obligation total on USAspending.gov is $1.7B. Virginia’s is $110.8B. Arkansas’s top industry is poultry processing — a food-manufacturing lead slice with no analog in Virginia’s other computer related services. Census population is 3,088,354 versus 8,811,195. Spending per capita is $85.06 versus $1,344.24. Award counts are 79,590 versus 1,116,647. Poultry processing on 79,590 awards is Arkansas’s food-manufacturing texture: many modest actions under $1.7B, not a handful of huge IT task orders.

Key figures

  • Arkansas $1.7B vs Virginia $110.8B in USAspending obligations.
  • Per capita $85.06 vs $1,344.24 (populations 3,088,354 and 8,811,195).
  • Awards 79,590 vs 1,116,647; FY2026 $262.7M vs $11.8B.
  • Top industries: poultry processing (AR) vs other computer related services (VA).
  • Figures are obligations from USAspending.gov, not Treasury outlays.

A $1.7B file with 79,590 awards

USAspending.gov obligations, not Treasury outlays, put Arkansas at $1.7B and Virginia at $110.8B. Arkansas’s 79,590 awards are numerous relative to $1.7B, which implies many modest actions rather than a few huge ones. Virginia’s 1,116,647 awards sit under $110.8B.

Food-processing federal work — school, military, and other institutional purchasing — can generate lots of delivery-style actions. That pattern fits a poultry-processing lead industry better than it fits Virginia’s computer-services stack. Count is high; dollars stay at $1.7B.

Eighty-five dollars per person vs $1,344

Arkansas’s $85.06 per capita uses $1.7B and 3,088,354 residents. Virginia’s $1,344.24 uses $110.8B and 8,811,195 residents. Population differs by about 2.9-to-1. Obligations differ by far more. Per capita is the remainder.

Arkansas is not empty of federal purchasing. It is lightly loaded per resident next to Virginia. Total-dollar rankings and per-person rankings both put Virginia first; per person is the ranking that survives a population adjustment.

Arkansas’s 79,590 awards on $1.7B imply many modest actions, which fits a poultry-processing lead better than it fits a handful of huge professional-services task orders. Virginia still leads on every dollar measure: $110.8B, 1,116,647 awards, $1,344.24 per capita on 8,811,195 residents versus Arkansas’s $85.06 on 3,088,354. FY2026’s $262.7M versus $11.8B is recency and can reflect annual food-supply awards as well as other actions. Largest slice is not whole file: poultry processing is Arkansas’s top grouping, not a claim that every award is a processing plant. Cite USAspending.gov obligations. Do not convert $1.7B or $110.8B into outlays or farm-policy scores.

Full analysis: Arkansas vs Virginia on USAspending: poultry-led $1.7B vs $110.8B →

Questions

How much federal spending is in Arkansas vs Virginia?
Arkansas has $1.7B in USAspending.gov obligations and 79,590 awards; Virginia has $110.8B and 1,116,647 awards. Spending per capita is $85.06 versus $1,344.24 on populations of 3,088,354 and 8,811,195. FY2026 obligations are $262.7M and $11.8B. These are obligations, not Treasury outlays. Those figures remain USAspending.gov obligations by place of performance, not Treasury outlays and not a score of which state deserves more work.
What is Arkansas’s top federal contracting industry vs Virginia’s?
Arkansas’s top industry is poultry processing. Virginia’s is other computer related services. Those slices sit on $1.7B and $110.8B in obligations. Poultry processing is a food-manufacturing grouping; Virginia’s lead slice is computer-related services. Neither label inventories every award in the state file.
Why does Arkansas have 79,590 awards on $1.7B?
A $1.7B stock spread across 79,590 awards implies many modest actions. A poultry-processing lead industry is consistent with repetitive institutional food purchasing. Virginia’s $110.8B sits on 1,116,647 awards with a computer-services lead slice — a different count-and-dollar pattern. Those figures remain USAspending.gov obligations by place of performance, not Treasury outlays and not a score of which state deserves more work.
Are Arkansas vs Virginia totals Treasury outlays?
No. SpendingVault uses USAspending.gov obligations. Outlays are cash payments and can lag. The $1.7B and $110.8B stacked totals and FY2026 amounts of $262.7M and $11.8B measure award commitments by place of performance, not cash already paid. Those figures remain USAspending.gov obligations by place of performance, not Treasury outlays and not a score of which state deserves more work.

State comparison from SpendingVault aggregates of USAspending obligations. Per-capita uses Census population where present.

Side-by-side federal spending and demographic comparison between Arkansas and Virginia.
ArkansasMetricVirginia
$16.95BTotal Spending$68.13B
$5KPer Capita$8K
N/A% of GDPN/A
3.1MPopulation8.8M
N/AMedian IncomeN/A
N/APoverty RateN/A
N/ABachelor Degree %N/A
N/AMedian AgeN/A
N/AUnemploymentN/A
N/AGDP (Millions)N/A

Top Agencies — Arkansas

  • Social Security Administration$41.31B
  • Department of Health and Human Services$36.04B
  • Department of Veterans Affairs$6.77B
  • Department of Agriculture$6.28B
  • Department of Transportation$4.28B

Top Agencies — Virginia

  • Department of Defense$325.98B
  • Department of Health and Human Services$147.16B
  • Social Security Administration$106.40B
  • Department of Veterans Affairs$103.76B
  • Small Business Administration$33.43B

Top Industries — Arkansas

  • COMPUTER SYSTEMS DESIGN SERVICES$1.09B
  • COMMERCIAL AND INSTITUTIONAL BUILDING CONSTRUCTION$1.01B
  • OTHER HEAVY AND CIVIL ENGINEERING CONSTRUCTION$578.2M
  • AMMUNITION (EXCEPT SMALL ARMS) MANUFACTURING$547.8M
  • ALL OTHER SUPPORT SERVICES$420.4M

Top Industries — Virginia

  • COMPUTER SYSTEMS DESIGN SERVICES$72.99B
  • SHIP BUILDING AND REPAIRING$69.56B
  • DIRECT HEALTH AND MEDICAL INSURANCE CARRIERS$61.44B
  • ENGINEERING SERVICES$60.92B
  • OTHER COMPUTER RELATED SERVICES$38.52B