Maryland vs Virginia on USAspending

Neighbors with the same industry label, different dollar stocks

Other computer related services leads both states. That is unusual in this comparison set, where most opponents of Virginia show a manufacturing or insurance code on the other side. The shared label does not mean the two markets are the same size. Virginia’s $110.8B is more than three times Maryland’s $30.1B. A common NAICS description can still sit on top of very different volumes of federal work.

Maryland’s Census population is 6,263,220. Virginia’s is 8,811,195. Virginia is larger, but not 3.7 times larger — which is roughly the obligation ratio. Population alone does not explain the dollar gap. Place-of-performance reporting on USAspending.gov can pull a heavy share of National Capital Region contracting into Virginia, and this aggregate reflects that reporting, not a household survey of where federal employees live.

Maryland’s 6,263,220 residents and Virginia’s 8,811,195 residents are close enough that a 3-to-1 dollar gap ($30.1B vs $110.8B) cannot be waved away as “Virginia is bigger.” It is bigger, but not by that factor. The residual is place-of-performance concentration of federal services work. SpendingVault does not re-assign awards across the District line; it reports the aggregates as USAspending.gov coded them.

Award actions: 229,316 versus 1,116,647

Maryland’s award count is 229,316. Virginia’s is 1,116,647 — nearly five times as many actions. Computer-related services work often generates task orders and modifications, so a high action count is consistent with a services-heavy book. Maryland still has a substantial 229,316 awards; it is not a thin file. Relative to Virginia, though, the action ledger is sparse.

Do not treat award count as vendor count. One contractor can appear on hundreds of modifications. The column is still useful as a volume check: Virginia’s lead is visible in dollars ($110.8B vs $30.1B) and in actions. FY 2026 marks the latest fiscal year on the comparison; the $30.1B and $110.8B stocks are the broader aggregates, not a claim that each dollar was newly obligated in that single year.

A 229,316-action file is not a thin state. It is thin next to 1,116,647. Computer-related services as the shared top industry makes that action gap more interesting, not less: the same leading NAICS description sits on very different volumes. Maryland is not missing the industry; it is recording less of it, plus whatever else sits under the $30.1B stock.

Per-capita intensity still favors Virginia

Maryland’s spending per capita is $315.60. Virginia’s is $1,344.24. Even after shrinking both states to a per-resident scale, Virginia remains far more obligation-dense. Maryland’s 6,263,220 residents and $30.1B total produce a moderate per-capita figure; Virginia’s 8,811,195 residents and $110.8B total produce a high one.

Per-capita is not take-home federal pay. It is obligations divided by Census population. Use it to avoid a raw-dollar comparison that ignores Maryland being the smaller state — and then notice that even with that adjustment, Virginia still leads by a wide margin.

Per-capita $315.60 versus $1,344.24 is the scaled version of the same story. Maryland’s $30.1B over 6,263,220 people is a moderate intensity. Virginia’s $110.8B over 8,811,195 people is a high intensity. FY 2026 is the latest year on the pair, not a claim that either stock was newly obligated in that year alone.

What a shared top industry does not tell you

Because both states list other computer related services as the top industry, a reader might assume the rest of the mix matches too. This packet does not include a second- or third-ranked industry, so that assumption is unsupported here. The only industry facts on this page are those two identical top labels plus the dollar, award, population, and per-capita columns.

For agency mix, recipient lists, and the rest of the NAICS table, open the Maryland and Virginia state pages. The comparison view is a head-to-head on the published pair metrics. It is not a full industrial census of the I-95 corridor.

Because the top-industry labels match, this pair is a poor place to tell a “Maryland does construction, Virginia does IT” story. Both do computer-related services at the top of the published mix. The published difference is scale: dollars, awards, population, and per-capita. Agency and recipient names are on the state hubs, not in this packet.

Source rules for the Maryland–Virginia pair

Cite USAspending.gov for the award records. SpendingVault aggregates those records into state comparison rows. Obligations are commitments; outlays are cash later. If a user export from USAspending disagrees with $30.1B or $110.8B, reconcile the date range and the obligation-versus-outlay switch before assuming either site is wrong.

The comparison hub collects other state pairs. Maryland versus Virginia is the Beltway neighbor matchup; it is not a substitute for looking at each state’s own hub when the question is “what did Maryland’s agencies buy,” which this pair page does not itemize.

Questions

Is Maryland’s federal spending close to Virginia’s?

No. Maryland shows $30.1B in USAspending obligations; Virginia shows $110.8B. Maryland’s population is 6,263,220 versus 8,811,195 in Virginia, so the dollar gap is larger than the population gap. Both totals are obligations, not outlays, with FY 2026 as the latest year.

Do Maryland and Virginia have the same top federal industry?

Yes, in this aggregate both list other computer related services as the top industry. That shared NAICS description does not make the books the same size: Virginia still has $110.8B and 1,116,647 awards against Maryland’s $30.1B and 229,316 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.

What is federal spending per capita in Maryland vs Virginia?

Maryland’s spending per capita is $315.60. Virginia’s is $1,344.24. The figures divide USAspending obligations by Census population (6,263,220 in Maryland, 8,811,195 in Virginia). They are scaling statistics, not payments to residents. 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 Maryland and Virginia totals outlays?

They are obligations from USAspending.gov as aggregated on SpendingVault. An obligation is a recorded commitment on an award. An outlay is a later Treasury payment and can differ in timing and amount. Use $30.1B (Maryland) and $110.8B (Virginia) as obligation stocks, not cash spent.