South Carolina vs Virginia
Federal spending comparison
South Carolina shows $3.9B in federal obligations on USAspending.gov; Virginia shows $110.8B. The dollar ratio is steep, and the per-person ratio is steeper still. With Census counts of 5,478,831 in South Carolina and 8,811,195 in Virginia, spending per capita is $83.98 against $1,344.24. South Carolina is not a tiny state. Its obligation file is tiny next to Virginia’s contractor economy. Biological product manufacturing as South Carolina’s lead slice, set against 129,440 awards, is a different industrial texture than Virginia’s computer-services volume on 1,116,647 awards.
Key figures
- South Carolina $3.9B vs Virginia $110.8B in USAspending obligations.
- Per capita: $83.98 (SC) vs $1,344.24 (VA) on 5,478,831 and 8,811,195 residents.
- Awards: 129,440 vs 1,116,647; FY2026: $460.1M vs $11.8B.
- Top industries: biological product manufacturing (SC) vs other computer related services (VA).
- Source is USAspending.gov obligations, not Treasury outlays.
Two states, one lopsided obligations file
These totals are obligations from USAspending.gov — commitments agencies record when they make awards — not Treasury outlays. South Carolina’s $3.9B and Virginia’s $110.8B therefore measure legal bookings, not checks cleared. Virginia’s stock is about 29 times South Carolina’s even though Virginia’s population is only about 1.6 times larger.
Awards tell a parallel story. South Carolina has 129,440 awards; Virginia has 1,116,647. South Carolina is not award-poor in raw count — more than a hundred thousand actions appear in the aggregate — yet those actions sum to $3.9B while Virginia’s file sums to $110.8B. Average size, not just count, drives the gap.
Per-capita dollars expose the real split
At $83.98 per resident, South Carolina’s obligation intensity is a small fraction of Virginia’s $1,344.24. Population (5,478,831 vs 8,811,195) cannot close that gap. If the two states drew federal awards in line with headcount, South Carolina would sit much closer to Virginia’s $110.8B. It does not.
Readers who only rank states by total dollars will already put Virginia first. The per-capita column is the one that shows South Carolina as a low-intensity state in this pair, not merely a smaller one.
Full analysis: South Carolina vs Virginia on USAspending: a $3.9B to $110.8B gap →
Questions
- How do South Carolina and Virginia compare on USAspending?
- South Carolina has $3.9B in obligations and 129,440 awards; Virginia has $110.8B and 1,116,647 awards. Spending per capita is $83.98 versus $1,344.24 on Census populations of 5,478,831 and 8,811,195. FY2026 obligations are $460.1M and $11.8B. All figures are USAspending.gov obligations, not Treasury outlays.
- What is South Carolina’s top federal contracting industry vs Virginia’s?
- South Carolina’s leading industry in this aggregate is biological product (except diagnostic) manufacturing. Virginia’s is other computer related services. Those labels mark the largest industry slice in each state, not every award. They sit on top of $3.9B and $110.8B in obligations respectively.
- Is South Carolina’s per-capita federal spending close to Virginia’s?
- No. South Carolina is at $83.98 per person; Virginia is at $1,344.24. The population gap (5,478,831 vs 8,811,195) is modest next to the obligation gap ($3.9B vs $110.8B). Per capita is the cleaner way to see that South Carolina’s federal award intensity is far below Virginia’s in this file.
- Does FY2026 change the South Carolina vs Virginia ranking?
- No. FY2026 still shows Virginia far ahead: $11.8B versus South Carolina’s $460.1M. The stacked totals are $3.9B and $110.8B. Latest-year figures are a time slice of USAspending.gov obligations, useful for recency, not a substitute for the full aggregate or for Treasury outlay tables.
State comparison from SpendingVault aggregates of USAspending obligations. Per-capita uses Census population where present.
| South Carolina | Metric | Virginia |
|---|---|---|
| $61.05B | Total Spending | $68.13B |
| $11K | Per Capita | $8K |
| N/A | % of GDP | N/A |
| 5.5M | Population | 8.8M |
| N/A | Median Income | N/A |
| N/A | Poverty Rate | N/A |
| N/A | Bachelor Degree % | N/A |
| N/A | Median Age | N/A |
| N/A | Unemployment | N/A |
| N/A | GDP (Millions) | N/A |
Top Agencies — South Carolina
- Department of Health and Human Services$236.02B
- Social Security Administration$78.83B
- Department of Energy$40.24B
- Department of Defense$16.77B
- Department of Veterans Affairs$15.08B
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 — South Carolina
- FACILITIES SUPPORT SERVICES$25.97B
- HAZARDOUS WASTE TREATMENT AND DISPOSAL$6.63B
- ENGINEERING SERVICES$6.47B
- REMEDIATION SERVICES$3.68B
- RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IN BIOTECHNOLOGY (EXCEPT NANOBIOTECHNOLOGY)$3.59B
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
Source: USAspending.gov · More Comparisons · South Carolina · Virginia