South Dakota vs Virginia

Eight thousand awards carrying a $1.0B file

USAspending.gov obligations, not Treasury outlays, put South Dakota at $1.0B and Virginia at $110.8B. South Dakota’s 8,274 awards are among the thinner counts in this comparison wave. Dollars per action run higher than in high-count, low-dollar states: a manufacturing-led file can do that without resembling Virginia’s 1,116,647-row services stack.

Electronic computer manufacturing as a lead slice means the largest grouping is hardware production, not help-desk or integration services. Virginia’s other computer related services label is the services residual. Both mention computers. They do not describe the same work.

Per capita $79.92 vs $1,344.24

South Dakota’s $79.92 per person uses $1.0B and 924,669 residents. Virginia’s $1,344.24 uses $110.8B and 8,811,195. A sub-million population lifts the per-person rate only so far when the numerator is $1.0B. Virginia remains in a different intensity band.

Prairie geography and a hardware-manufacturing lead do not produce a capital-region obligation load. $79.92 versus $1,344.24 is the measured gap after Census counts are divided out.

South Dakota’s 8,274 awards on $1.0B are a hardware-file texture under electronic computer manufacturing, not a services-file texture under Virginia’s other computer related services. The computer vocabulary overlaps; the goods-versus-services split does not. Per capita is $79.92 on 924,669 residents versus $1,344.24 on 8,811,195. Award counts are 8,274 versus 1,116,647. FY2026 is $73.9M versus $11.8B. A lumpy manufacturing lot can move the stacked $1.0B without filling a Virginia-sized row count. Cite USAspending.gov obligations. Do not collapse the two industry labels into one computer story, and do not import Treasury outlays.

Questions

How much federal spending is in South Dakota vs Virginia?

South Dakota has $1.0B in USAspending.gov obligations and 8,274 awards; Virginia has $110.8B and 1,116,647 awards. Spending per capita is $79.92 versus $1,344.24 on populations of 924,669 and 8,811,195. FY2026 obligations are $73.9M 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.

Is South Dakota’s top industry the same as Virginia’s computer-related lead?

No. South Dakota’s top industry is electronic computer manufacturing (hardware). Virginia’s is other computer related services. Those slices sit on $1.0B and $110.8B. A goods label and a services label both mention computers and describe different work. Those figures remain USAspending.gov obligations by place of performance, not Treasury outlays and not a score of which state deserves more work.

Why does South Dakota have only 8,274 federal awards?

South Dakota’s 8,274 awards on $1.0B imply a concentrated, relatively high dollar-per-award mix, consistent with a manufacturing lead. Virginia’s $110.8B sits on 1,116,647 awards. Count follows industrial mix as well as scale; a thin row count is not a missing-data error by itself.

Are South Dakota vs Virginia figures outlays?

No. They are obligations from USAspending.gov. Treasury outlays are cash payments and can lag. The $1.0B and $110.8B totals and FY2026 amounts of $73.9M and $11.8B measure award commitments by place of performance, not checks issued. Those figures remain USAspending.gov obligations by place of performance, not Treasury outlays and not a score of which state deserves more work.