Pennsylvania vs Texas on USAspending: more awards, fewer dollars
Texas shows $72.7B in USAspending.gov obligations; Pennsylvania shows $28.1B. Pennsylvania’s award file is far busier: 1,468,918 actions against Texas’s 530,634. That is the inversion. Pennsylvania has 13,078,751 residents and $239.68 per capita; Texas has 31,290,831 residents and $686.10 per capita. Lead industries are medicinal and botanical manufacturing in Pennsylvania and pharmaceutical preparation manufacturing in Texas. FY2026 obligations are $3.1B and $21.5B.
Key figures
- Pennsylvania $28.1B vs Texas $72.7B in USAspending obligations.
- Per capita $239.68 vs $686.10 on 13,078,751 vs 31,290,831 residents.
- Awards: 1,468,918 vs 530,634; FY2026 $3.1B vs $21.5B.
- Top industries: medicinal and botanical manufacturing (PA) vs pharmaceutical preparation manufacturing (TX).
- Figures are USAspending.gov obligations, not Treasury outlays.
1,468,918 Pennsylvania awards on $28.1B vs 530,634 Texas awards on $72.7B
Pennsylvania logs 1,468,918 awards on $28.1B. Texas logs 530,634 awards on $72.7B. Row volume and dollar stock are different rankings in this pair. A busier file is not automatically the heavier file, and a heavier file is not automatically the busier one. These figures are USAspending.gov obligations by place of performance, not Treasury outlays. Cash payments can lag award dates. Headquarters can differ from the state coded on the award.
Readers who sort only by award count will miss $28.1B versus $72.7B. Readers who sort only by dollars will miss 1,468,918 versus 530,634. Hold both. Typical booking size moves with that split: fewer rows on more dollars means a heavier average action, not a moral grade. Pennsylvania’s 1,468,918 awards make Texas’s 530,634 look sparse even though Texas holds $72.7B to Pennsylvania’s $28.1B.
People, intensity, and a medicinal-versus-pharma mix
Census counts are 13,078,751 in Pennsylvania and 31,290,831 in Texas. Spending per capita is $239.68 versus $686.10. That ratio uses stacked obligations, not FY2026 alone and not GDP. A higher per-person reading means a thicker federal-award intensity on the Census denominator, nothing else.
Medicinal and botanical manufacturing versus pharmaceutical preparation manufacturing is a near-neighbor NAICS contrast: both are drug-related manufacturing peaks, sitting on very different dollar stocks and very different row counts. Population can lead while dollars trail, or the reverse. The table reports both. It does not convert either into outlays.
Related manufacturing peaks, different dollar weights
Pennsylvania’s top industry is medicinal and botanical manufacturing. Texas’s top industry is pharmaceutical preparation manufacturing. Those labels are the tallest NAICS bars on $28.1B and $72.7B, not a full industrial census of 1,468,918 or 530,634 actions. Mix is a peak. Scale is the stacked stock.
Treat the industry tags as a starting map, then return to dollars, rows, and per capita. Use the comparison hub for the side-by-side tables, then the Pennsylvania and Texas state hubs for agencies and recipients.
FY2026 keeps Texas ahead on recency
FY2026 obligations are $3.1B in Pennsylvania and $21.5B in Texas. Recency can agree with the stacked $28.1B versus $72.7B ranking or it can tighten or widen the gap. Do not divide those latest-year amounts by the all-years award counts of 1,468,918 and 530,634.
Per capita of $239.68 and $686.10 already divides stacked obligations by 13,078,751 and 31,290,831 residents. FY2026 is the recency cut of the same USAspending.gov series. These figures are USAspending.gov obligations by place of performance, not Treasury outlays. Cash payments can lag award dates. Headquarters can differ from the state coded on the award.
How to read a busy file against a heavy file
Four headline cuts travel together: stacked dollars ($28.1B vs $72.7B), award counts (1,468,918 vs 530,634), population (13,078,751 vs 31,290,831), and per capita ($239.68 vs $686.10). They do not always pick the same leader. That disagreement is the reason this pair exists as a comparison rather than a single ranking.
Use the comparison hub for the side-by-side tables, then the Pennsylvania and Texas state hubs for agencies and recipients. Keep every cut labeled as obligations. medicinal and botanical manufacturing versus pharmaceutical preparation manufacturing remains mix, not an explanation of every dollar.
A medicinal peak on 1.47 million awards
Pennsylvania’s 1,468,918 awards on $28.1B versus Texas’s 530,634 awards on $72.7B is the clearest row-versus-dollar split among the large-state Texas pairs. Medicinal and botanical manufacturing versus pharmaceutical preparation manufacturing keeps the mix in the same neighborhood without making the files interchangeable. Per capita stays $239.68 on 13,078,751 residents versus $686.10 on 31,290,831.
FY2026’s $3.1B versus $21.5B restates Texas’s dollar lead in one year. It does not erase Pennsylvania’s row lead. USAspending.gov obligations can lag as cash. Place of performance can differ from headquarters. The comparison hub keeps 1,468,918 versus 530,634 in view next to $28.1B versus $72.7B.
Pennsylvania versus Texas on USAspending.gov is $28.1B versus $72.7B in stacked obligations, 1,468,918 versus 530,634 awards, 13,078,751 versus 31,290,831 residents, $239.68 versus $686.10 per capita, and $3.1B versus $21.5B in FY2026. Top industries remain medicinal and botanical manufacturing and pharmaceutical preparation manufacturing. Those cuts are the packet.
Do not divide FY2026 dollars by all-years award counts. Do not treat $239.68 and $686.10 as household income. Do not treat medicinal and botanical manufacturing or pharmaceutical preparation manufacturing as a complete industrial census. Place of performance can differ from headquarters. Cash outlays can lag. After the comparison table, the Pennsylvania and Texas state hubs hold agencies and recipients.
Questions
- Which has more federal spending, Pennsylvania or Texas?
- Pennsylvania shows $28.1B in USAspending.gov obligations; Texas shows $72.7B. Award counts are 1,468,918 and 530,634. Populations are 13,078,751 and 31,290,831. Spending per capita is $239.68 versus $686.10. FY2026 obligations are $3.1B and $21.5B. These are obligations, not Treasury outlays. These figures are USAspending.gov obligations, not Treasury outlays.
- What industries lead Pennsylvania and Texas federal awards?
- Pennsylvania’s top industry is medicinal and botanical manufacturing. Texas’s top industry is pharmaceutical preparation manufacturing. Those slices sit on $28.1B and $72.7B in USAspending.gov obligations and on 1,468,918 versus 530,634 awards. They mark the largest grouping in each file, not every award.
- How do Pennsylvania and Texas compare on spending per capita?
- Spending per capita is $239.68 in Pennsylvania on 13,078,751 residents and $686.10 in Texas on 31,290,831 residents. Those ratios use stacked USAspending.gov obligations of $28.1B and $72.7B, not FY2026 alone and not GDP. These figures are USAspending.gov obligations, not Treasury outlays.
- Are Pennsylvania vs Texas figures Treasury outlays?
- No. The $28.1B and $72.7B stacked totals, and FY2026 amounts of $3.1B and $21.5B, are USAspending.gov obligations by place of performance. Outlays are cash payments and can lag. Award counts are 1,468,918 and 530,634. These figures are USAspending.gov obligations, not Treasury outlays.
State comparison from SpendingVault aggregates of USAspending obligations. Per-capita uses Census population where present.