In Virginia, between 2019-2021:
- Food insecurity in Virginia averaged 7.80%.
- Virginia’s food insecurity rate was 25% lower than the national average of 10.4%.
- The official poverty rate (which does not account for income from safety-net and tax-support programs such as SNAP, EITC, and others) in the state averaged 8.80%.
- But using the Supplemental Poverty Measure (which does include safety-net and tax-support income), the poverty rate falls to 8.60%, reducing the number of people living in poverty in Virginia by 15,000.
- SNAP, alone, lifted 121,000 people above the poverty line in Virginia, including 52,000 children, per year between 2013 and 2017, on average.
