South Carolina vs Virginia on USAspending: a $3.9B to $110.8B gap

Two states, one lopsided obligations file

These totals are obligations from USAspending.gov — commitments agencies record when they make awards — not Treasury outlays. South Carolina’s $3.9B and Virginia’s $110.8B therefore measure legal bookings, not checks cleared. Virginia’s stock is about 29 times South Carolina’s even though Virginia’s population is only about 1.6 times larger.

Awards tell a parallel story. South Carolina has 129,440 awards; Virginia has 1,116,647. South Carolina is not award-poor in raw count — more than a hundred thousand actions appear in the aggregate — yet those actions sum to $3.9B while Virginia’s file sums to $110.8B. Average size, not just count, drives the gap.

Per-capita dollars expose the real split

At $83.98 per resident, South Carolina’s obligation intensity is a small fraction of Virginia’s $1,344.24. Population (5,478,831 vs 8,811,195) cannot close that gap. If the two states drew federal awards in line with headcount, South Carolina would sit much closer to Virginia’s $110.8B. It does not.

Readers who only rank states by total dollars will already put Virginia first. The per-capita column is the one that shows South Carolina as a low-intensity state in this pair, not merely a smaller one.

Biologics manufacturing versus computer services

South Carolina’s top industry is biological product (except diagnostic) manufacturing. Virginia’s is other computer related services. A biologics plant and a professional-services bench are different federal customers. One is a manufacturing NAICS slice; the other is the IT-and-support work that clusters around federal agencies in Northern Virginia.

Industry labels are the largest slice, not the whole pie. They still explain why 129,440 South Carolina awards can remain a $3.9B file while Virginia’s 1,116,647 awards reach $110.8B: services volume in Virginia stacks differently than a manufacturing-led mix in South Carolina.

FY2026: $460.1M against $11.8B

In FY2026, the latest year on this comparison, South Carolina shows $460.1M in obligations and Virginia shows $11.8B. South Carolina’s latest-year figure is a modest share of its $3.9B stacked total; Virginia’s latest year is also a slice of a much larger stock. Year-to-year readers should use FY2026, not the all-years sum, when they ask what agencies booked most recently.

South Carolina’s $460.1M in FY2026 is a reminder that a $3.9B stacked total is not a single-year appropriation. Virginia’s $11.8B latest-year figure is itself smaller than the $110.8B stock, which means both states carry history in the all-years column. A biologics manufacturing lead can produce uneven year-to-year bookings if a plant award lands in one fiscal year and modifications follow later. Readers comparing “this year in South Carolina” should cite $460.1M, 129,440 awards only as the all-years count, and $83.98 per capita as the intensity rate on 5,478,831 residents. USAspending.gov obligations remain the unit in every column.

How to read the comparison without mixing data types

Do not treat $3.9B or $110.8B as money already paid to state treasuries. Obligations can cover multi-year work. Place-of-performance state is not the same as the recipient’s headquarters state. For agency and recipient lists, open the South Carolina and Virginia state pages. For other pairs, use the full comparison index. South Carolina’s $3.9B and Virginia’s $110.8B are place-of-performance aggregates. A biologics plant in South Carolina and an IT shop in Northern Virginia can both appear here without implying that every award in the state is that industry. Drill into the state hubs for agencies and recipients.

South Carolina’s $3.9B file will look larger if someone accidentally treats obligations as outlays plus grants plus federal salaries. This comparison does not add civilian payroll or tax refunds. It scores award obligations with a South Carolina or Virginia place of performance. Biological product (except diagnostic) manufacturing versus other computer related services is mix, not a complete industrial census. For agency and recipient names behind $3.9B and $110.8B, use the state hubs. For other pairs, use the comparison index.

Reading South Carolina’s $83.98 against Virginia’s $1,344.24

The per-capita column is the one that survives a claim that South Carolina is simply smaller. Census counts of 5,478,831 and 8,811,195 are not far apart by U.S. state standards. Obligations of $3.9B and $110.8B are. Dividing those dollars by those people produces $83.98 versus $1,344.24, which is the intensity gap after headcount is removed.

FY2026 ($460.1M vs $11.8B) is a recency cut, not a replacement for the stacked totals. Award counts (129,440 vs 1,116,647) show South Carolina is not empty of actions. Average size still favors Virginia. Keep obligations labeled as USAspending.gov commitments, not cash already paid by Treasury.

Questions

How do South Carolina and Virginia compare on USAspending?

South Carolina has $3.9B in obligations and 129,440 awards; Virginia has $110.8B and 1,116,647 awards. Spending per capita is $83.98 versus $1,344.24 on Census populations of 5,478,831 and 8,811,195. FY2026 obligations are $460.1M and $11.8B. All figures are USAspending.gov obligations, not Treasury outlays.

What is South Carolina’s top federal contracting industry vs Virginia’s?

South Carolina’s leading industry in this aggregate is biological product (except diagnostic) manufacturing. Virginia’s is other computer related services. Those labels mark the largest industry slice in each state, not every award. They sit on top of $3.9B and $110.8B in obligations respectively.

Is South Carolina’s per-capita federal spending close to Virginia’s?

No. South Carolina is at $83.98 per person; Virginia is at $1,344.24. The population gap (5,478,831 vs 8,811,195) is modest next to the obligation gap ($3.9B vs $110.8B). Per capita is the cleaner way to see that South Carolina’s federal award intensity is far below Virginia’s in this file.

Does FY2026 change the South Carolina vs Virginia ranking?

No. FY2026 still shows Virginia far ahead: $11.8B versus South Carolina’s $460.1M. The stacked totals are $3.9B and $110.8B. Latest-year figures are a time slice of USAspending.gov obligations, useful for recency, not a substitute for the full aggregate or for Treasury outlay tables.