New Mexico vs Virginia

How far apart the obligation totals sit

USAspending.gov records obligations — legal commitments agencies make on awards — not Treasury outlays, which are the later cash payments. SpendingVault’s state comparison uses those obligation aggregates. New Mexico’s $3.9B sits next to Virginia’s $110.8B. The absolute gap is the first fact a reader should hold: most of the federal award dollars in this pair are booked to Virginia.

Award volume follows the same direction with a different slope. New Mexico has 19,233 awards; Virginia has 1,116,647. Virginia therefore shows both a larger dollar stock and a much denser award file. A handful of large construction actions in New Mexico can move the state total; Virginia’s file is large enough that no single award class explains $110.8B by itself.

Per capita is the New Mexico surprise

Divide obligations by Census population and New Mexico looks less small. At $945.82 per resident, it reaches about 70 percent of Virginia’s $1,344.24. Population is 2,130,256 versus 8,811,195 — Virginia has roughly four times as many people, not 28 times as many. The dollar gap is a scale story; the per-capita gap is a concentration story.

That distinction matters for anyone comparing “how much federal money is in this state.” A raw $3.9B versus $110.8B ranking will always put Virginia first. A per-person ranking still puts Virginia first, but it shows New Mexico drawing a heavier federal obligation load relative to its population than the headline totals imply.

Questions

How much federal spending is in New Mexico vs Virginia on USAspending?

SpendingVault shows $3.9B in obligations for New Mexico and $110.8B for Virginia. Those figures are USAspending.gov obligations, not Treasury outlays. Award counts are 19,233 and 1,116,647. FY2026, the latest year in the file, shows $2.0B and $11.8B. Per-capita obligations are $945.82 and $1,344.24 using Census population.

Why is Virginia so much higher than New Mexico in federal obligations?

Virginia’s $110.8B total is about 28 times New Mexico’s $3.9B, with 1,116,647 awards against 19,233. Population is also larger — 8,811,195 versus 2,130,256 — but not by the same factor. Virginia’s top industry is other computer related services; New Mexico’s is commercial and institutional building construction. Location of contractor work near federal agencies helps explain the scale, not a single program.

Does New Mexico get more federal money per person than Virginia?

No. New Mexico’s spending per capita is $945.82; Virginia’s is $1,344.24. New Mexico is closer on a per-person basis than the $3.9B versus $110.8B headline suggests, because its Census population is 2,130,256 against Virginia’s 8,811,195. The per-capita series still ranks Virginia higher.

Are these numbers outlays or obligations?

Obligations. USAspending.gov reports the amount agencies have legally committed on awards. Treasury outlays are cash that has gone out the door and can lag obligations by months or years. SpendingVault’s New Mexico vs Virginia comparison, including the $3.9B and $110.8B totals and the FY2026 figures of $2.0B and $11.8B, is an obligations view.