Alabama vs Ohio

A $459 million gap on two large stocks

These figures are USAspending.gov obligations, not Treasury outlays. Ohio’s $8.1B stock sits $459 million above Alabama’s $7.7B. Place of performance in the award file is the scoring rule. The two states are close enough in dollars that a reader who only checks the headline ranking will miss the rest of the table: people, intensity, mix, and the latest fiscal year.

Award counts barely separate them. Alabama logs 161,254 actions; Ohio logs 168,038. On stocks of $7.7B and $8.1B, those row totals imply similar typical booking sizes. Ohio does not win this comparison by flooding the file with extra rows. It wins on a slightly larger dollar stock attached to a much larger population of 11,883,304 versus 5,157,699.

Alabama’s 161,254 awards and Ohio’s 168,038 awards are close enough that a reader can treat typical booking size as similar and still be wrong about intensity. $7,682,295,934 on 5,157,699 residents is a denser book than $8,141,450,027 on 11,883,304 residents. FY2026 of $602,489,799 versus $732,683,316 stays with Ohio. Building construction versus aircraft engines remains mix, not a census of either file.

Alabama’s $116.81 versus Ohio’s $61.66

Divide each obligation stock by Census population and the ranking inverts. Alabama’s $7,682,295,934 on 5,157,699 residents produces $116.81 per capita. Ohio’s $8,141,450,027 on 11,883,304 residents produces $61.66. Intensity in Alabama is nearly double Ohio’s. Population is the engine of that split, not a hidden extra year of awards.

A $116.81 per-person reading is an intensity fact, not a household check. The comparison does not score GDP, tax collections, or cash paid. It scores USAspending place of performance. Ohio can lead stacked dollars while trailing on a per-resident basis because 11,883,304 people spread $8.1B more thinly than 5,157,699 people spread $7.7B.

Questions

Which state has more federal spending, Alabama or Ohio?

Ohio leads in stacked USAspending.gov obligations: $8,141,450,027 versus Alabama’s $7,682,295,934. Award counts are close (168,038 vs 161,254). Ohio has more than twice the people (11,883,304 vs 5,157,699). Spending per capita is $116.81 in Alabama and $61.66 in Ohio. FY2026 obligations are $602.5M and $732.7M. These are obligations, not Treasury outlays.

Why is Alabama’s per-capita federal spending higher than Ohio’s?

Alabama’s $7.7B stock sits on 5,157,699 residents, which produces $116.81 per capita. Ohio’s $8.1B stock sits on 11,883,304 residents, which produces $61.66. The stacked ranking still favors Ohio. Intensity favors Alabama because the same-order dollar totals are spread across far fewer people. Award rows (161,254 vs 168,038) do not explain the gap.

What industries lead Alabama and Ohio federal awards?

Alabama’s top industry is commercial and institutional building construction. Ohio’s is aircraft engine and engine parts manufacturing. Those slices sit on $7.7B and $8.1B obligation stocks. They mark the largest grouping in each file, not every award in either state. Award counts are 161,254 in Alabama and 168,038 in Ohio.

Are Alabama vs Ohio figures Treasury outlays?

No. SpendingVault uses USAspending.gov obligations. Outlays are cash payments and can lag. The $7.7B and $8.1B stacked totals and FY2026 amounts of $602.5M and $732.7M measure award commitments by place of performance, not Monthly Treasury Statement payments.