California vs Washington

A $39.5B file next to a $7.3B file

These totals are USAspending.gov obligations by place of performance, not Treasury outlays. California’s $39.5B is about 5.4 times Washington’s $7.3B. Population runs in the same direction: 39,431,263 versus 7,958,180, roughly a fivefold gap. Because the population ratio and the dollar ratio are close, California still leads on intensity — $135.64 per capita versus $73.46 — rather than merely winning on headcount.

Award volume tracks the dollar ranking. California logs 639,340 awards; Washington logs 236,821. That is about 2.7 awards in California for each award in Washington, a smaller multiple than the 5.4× dollar gap. Average booking size is therefore higher on the California side of this pair, even though both files are large enough to contain many small actions.

Same construction label, different dollar weight

California’s top industry is commercial and institutional building construction. Washington’s top industry is the same label. A shared lead NAICS does not mean the two files are interchangeable. It means the largest slice in each statewide aggregate is federal building work, sitting on very different stacks: $39.5B in California and $7.3B in Washington.

Construction awards can be lumpy. A few large facilities can move a year; thousands of smaller task orders can fill the rest of the 639,340 and 236,821 rows. The lead-industry tag is a peak in the mix, not a census of every recipient. Readers who want agencies and recipients should open the California and Washington state hubs rather than treat the construction label as the whole story.

Questions

Which state has more federal spending, California or Washington?

California leads on USAspending.gov obligations: $39.5B versus Washington’s $7.3B. California also has more awards (639,340 vs 236,821), more residents (39,431,263 vs 7,958,180), and higher spending per capita ($135.64 vs $73.46). FY2026 obligations are $5.3B in California and $584.6M in Washington. These figures are obligations, not Treasury outlays.

Do California and Washington have different top federal industries?

No. Both states list commercial and institutional building construction as the top industry in this aggregate. The gap is scale: $39.5B and 639,340 awards in California against $7.3B and 236,821 awards in Washington. The shared label is the largest slice, not a full industrial census of either file.

How does FY2026 compare with the stacked California–Washington totals?

FY2026 shows $5.3B in California and $584.6M in Washington. That latest-year multiple is wider than the stacked $39.5B versus $7.3B gap. Per capita of $135.64 and $73.46 uses Census counts of 39,431,263 and 7,958,180 against the stacked obligations, not against the single year.

Are these California and Washington figures Treasury outlays?

No. SpendingVault uses USAspending.gov obligations. Outlays are cash payments and can lag award dates. The $39.5B and $7.3B stacked totals, and the FY2026 amounts of $5.3B and $584.6M, measure commitments by place of performance. These figures are USAspending.gov obligations, not Treasury outlays.