Arkansas vs Virginia
Federal spending comparison
Arkansas’s federal obligation total on USAspending.gov is $1.7B. Virginia’s is $110.8B. Arkansas’s top industry is poultry processing — a food-manufacturing lead slice with no analog in Virginia’s other computer related services. Census population is 3,088,354 versus 8,811,195. Spending per capita is $85.06 versus $1,344.24. Award counts are 79,590 versus 1,116,647. Poultry processing on 79,590 awards is Arkansas’s food-manufacturing texture: many modest actions under $1.7B, not a handful of huge IT task orders.
Key figures
- Arkansas $1.7B vs Virginia $110.8B in USAspending obligations.
- Per capita $85.06 vs $1,344.24 (populations 3,088,354 and 8,811,195).
- Awards 79,590 vs 1,116,647; FY2026 $262.7M vs $11.8B.
- Top industries: poultry processing (AR) vs other computer related services (VA).
- Figures are obligations from USAspending.gov, not Treasury outlays.
A $1.7B file with 79,590 awards
USAspending.gov obligations, not Treasury outlays, put Arkansas at $1.7B and Virginia at $110.8B. Arkansas’s 79,590 awards are numerous relative to $1.7B, which implies many modest actions rather than a few huge ones. Virginia’s 1,116,647 awards sit under $110.8B.
Food-processing federal work — school, military, and other institutional purchasing — can generate lots of delivery-style actions. That pattern fits a poultry-processing lead industry better than it fits Virginia’s computer-services stack. Count is high; dollars stay at $1.7B.
Eighty-five dollars per person vs $1,344
Arkansas’s $85.06 per capita uses $1.7B and 3,088,354 residents. Virginia’s $1,344.24 uses $110.8B and 8,811,195 residents. Population differs by about 2.9-to-1. Obligations differ by far more. Per capita is the remainder.
Arkansas is not empty of federal purchasing. It is lightly loaded per resident next to Virginia. Total-dollar rankings and per-person rankings both put Virginia first; per person is the ranking that survives a population adjustment.
Arkansas’s 79,590 awards on $1.7B imply many modest actions, which fits a poultry-processing lead better than it fits a handful of huge professional-services task orders. Virginia still leads on every dollar measure: $110.8B, 1,116,647 awards, $1,344.24 per capita on 8,811,195 residents versus Arkansas’s $85.06 on 3,088,354. FY2026’s $262.7M versus $11.8B is recency and can reflect annual food-supply awards as well as other actions. Largest slice is not whole file: poultry processing is Arkansas’s top grouping, not a claim that every award is a processing plant. Cite USAspending.gov obligations. Do not convert $1.7B or $110.8B into outlays or farm-policy scores.
Full analysis: Arkansas vs Virginia on USAspending: poultry-led $1.7B vs $110.8B →
Questions
- How much federal spending is in Arkansas vs Virginia?
- Arkansas has $1.7B in USAspending.gov obligations and 79,590 awards; Virginia has $110.8B and 1,116,647 awards. Spending per capita is $85.06 versus $1,344.24 on populations of 3,088,354 and 8,811,195. FY2026 obligations are $262.7M 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.
- What is Arkansas’s top federal contracting industry vs Virginia’s?
- Arkansas’s top industry is poultry processing. Virginia’s is other computer related services. Those slices sit on $1.7B and $110.8B in obligations. Poultry processing is a food-manufacturing grouping; Virginia’s lead slice is computer-related services. Neither label inventories every award in the state file.
- Why does Arkansas have 79,590 awards on $1.7B?
- A $1.7B stock spread across 79,590 awards implies many modest actions. A poultry-processing lead industry is consistent with repetitive institutional food purchasing. Virginia’s $110.8B sits on 1,116,647 awards with a computer-services lead slice — a different count-and-dollar pattern. Those figures remain USAspending.gov obligations by place of performance, not Treasury outlays and not a score of which state deserves more work.
- Are Arkansas vs Virginia totals Treasury outlays?
- No. SpendingVault uses USAspending.gov obligations. Outlays are cash payments and can lag. The $1.7B and $110.8B stacked totals and FY2026 amounts of $262.7M and $11.8B measure award commitments by place of performance, not cash already paid. Those figures remain USAspending.gov obligations by place of performance, not Treasury outlays and not a score of which state deserves more work.
State comparison from SpendingVault aggregates of USAspending obligations. Per-capita uses Census population where present.
Top Agencies — Arkansas
- Social Security Administration$41.31B
- Department of Health and Human Services$36.04B
- Department of Veterans Affairs$6.77B
- Department of Agriculture$6.28B
- Department of Transportation$4.28B
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 — Arkansas
- COMPUTER SYSTEMS DESIGN SERVICES$1.09B
- COMMERCIAL AND INSTITUTIONAL BUILDING CONSTRUCTION$1.01B
- OTHER HEAVY AND CIVIL ENGINEERING CONSTRUCTION$578.2M
- AMMUNITION (EXCEPT SMALL ARMS) MANUFACTURING$547.8M
- ALL OTHER SUPPORT SERVICES$420.4M
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 · Arkansas · Virginia