Massachusetts vs Virginia on USAspending

Two mid-size states, one oversized federal book

When two states have similar population, the raw dollar column is easier to read. Massachusetts at 7,136,171 people and Virginia at 8,811,195 people are in the same size class. Virginia’s $110.8B is still about eight times Massachusetts’s $13.5B. That gap is not a population artifact. It is a difference in how much federal award activity USAspending.gov attributes to each state by place of performance.

Massachusetts remains a high-skill, high-cost economy with a real federal footprint at $13.5B. The comparison does not say Massachusetts “lacks” federal work. It says that, measured on the same obligation ledger, Virginia’s contractor-heavy stock is in another band.

Seven million one hundred thirty-six thousand one hundred seventy-one Massachusetts residents versus 8,811,195 Virginia residents is a fair fight on headcount. $13.5B versus $110.8B is not a fair fight on the federal award ledger. That is the value of this pair: it removes the “Virginia is smaller so of course the dollars are different” excuse that applies to Texas or California.

Aircraft engines versus computer-related services

Massachusetts’s top industry is aircraft engine and engine parts manufacturing. Virginia’s is other computer related services. Engines are discrete manufactured goods; computer-related services are a professional-services stack. A manufacturing lead can rest on a smaller set of large production awards. A services lead often rests on many task orders. Massachusetts’s award count is 294,824 against Virginia’s 1,116,647, which fits that goods-versus-services contrast without proving every Massachusetts dollar is an engine.

Top industry is the largest NAICS slice in each state’s aggregate, not a claim that Pratt-style engine work (or any named firm) accounts for $13.5B. This page does not name vendors. It reports the packet’s industry labels and the dollar and award columns that sit next to them.

Aircraft engine and engine parts manufacturing as Massachusetts’s top industry sits in a cluster with Ohio’s engine-parts lead and Connecticut’s and Oklahoma’s aircraft-parts leads, each on different dollar stocks. This page stays on Massachusetts’s $13.5B and 294,824 awards. Virginia’s other computer related services label is the services counterpart at $110.8B and 1,116,647 awards.

Per-capita $364.70 versus $1,344.24

Massachusetts’s spending per capita is $364.70 — higher than many large-population states in this set, still far below Virginia’s $1,344.24. Similar population makes that gap cleaner: the denominator is not doing most of the work. Virginia’s higher $110.8B numerator is.

Per-capita is obligations divided by Census population. It is not wages, procurement “wins,” or a tax refund. FY 2026 marks the latest year on the comparison; the $13.5B and $110.8B figures are the broader stocks.

$364.70 per capita is high relative to many large-population states in this set and still about one-quarter of Virginia’s $1,344.24. Similar denominators (7,136,171 and 8,811,195) mean the per-capita gap is mostly the $13.5B versus $110.8B numerator gap. FY 2026 is the latest year, not a single-year engine appropriation.

Award counts as a volume check

294,824 Massachusetts awards versus 1,116,647 Virginia awards is a 3.8-to-1 action gap, smaller than the 8-to-1 dollar gap. Massachusetts actions are fewer, but each action is not necessarily smaller; the packet does not publish average award value. What can be said: Virginia leads on both actions and dollars, and Massachusetts’s engine-manufacturing top code sits on a thinner action file.

Cite USAspending.gov, keep obligations separate from outlays, and use the Massachusetts and Virginia state hubs for agency and recipient tables. The all-comparisons index is the next stop if the question is Massachusetts versus a New England neighbor rather than versus Virginia.

Cite USAspending.gov. Do not convert $13.5B or $110.8B into outlays. For the rest of the NAICS table and for agency lists, use the Massachusetts and Virginia state hubs. This guide is the head-to-head on the packet’s comparison metrics.

Limits of the pair view

This page does not break $13.5B or $110.8B by agency, does not convert obligations to outlays, and does not forecast FY 2026 remaining. It is a head-to-head on the published comparison metrics. For anything finer, leave the pair and open the state pages or a filtered USAspending download.

Questions

Is Massachusetts federal spending close to Virginia’s?

No. Massachusetts shows $13.5B in USAspending obligations; Virginia shows $110.8B. Populations are closer than the dollars: 7,136,171 in Massachusetts and 8,811,195 in Virginia. Totals are obligations, not outlays. FY 2026 is the latest year in the pair. Figures come from SpendingVault aggregates of USAspending.gov award records. They are obligations — recorded commitments — not Treasury outlays, and FY 2026 is the latest year in the comparison.

What is Massachusetts’s top federal industry compared with Virginia?

Massachusetts’s top industry is aircraft engine and engine parts manufacturing. Virginia’s is other computer related services. Those NAICS descriptions are the leading slices in SpendingVault’s aggregates, not a full list of either state’s federal awards. Figures come from SpendingVault aggregates of USAspending.gov award records. They are obligations — recorded commitments — not Treasury outlays, and FY 2026 is the latest year in the comparison.

How do Massachusetts and Virginia compare on awards and per-capita spending?

Massachusetts has 294,824 awards and $364.70 in spending per capita. Virginia has 1,116,647 awards and $1,344.24 per capita. Per-capita uses Census population (7,136,171 and 8,811,195) in the denominator and USAspending obligations in the numerator. Figures come from SpendingVault aggregates of USAspending.gov award records. They are obligations — recorded commitments — not Treasury outlays, and FY 2026 is the latest year in the comparison.

Are these Massachusetts and Virginia figures outlays?

They are obligations from USAspending.gov as aggregated on SpendingVault: $13.5B for Massachusetts and $110.8B for Virginia. An obligation is a recorded commitment on an award. An outlay is a later Treasury payment and can differ in timing and amount. Figures come from SpendingVault aggregates of USAspending.gov award records. They are obligations — recorded commitments — not Treasury outlays, and FY 2026 is the latest year in the comparison.