Texas vs Virginia on USAspending

Why the smaller state shows the larger total

Texas has 31,290,831 residents in the Census figures used for this pair. Virginia has 8,811,195. That is roughly 3.5 Texas residents for every Virginia resident, yet Virginia’s $110.8B obligation total is about 1.5 times Texas’s $72.7B. Place-of-performance reporting on USAspending.gov concentrates a large share of federal contracting in the National Capital Region, and Virginia sits on that corridor. Texas remains a high-dollar state in absolute terms; it simply does not match Virginia’s density of federal work.

SpendingVault’s state comparison uses those USAspending aggregates rather than a budget scorecard. An obligation can sit on the books for years before an outlay, and some awards never pay out in full. Readers who treat $110.8B or $72.7B as “money already spent in the state” will overstate cash flow. The useful read is relative scale: two large states, one of them a contractor hub, measured on the same obligation ledger.

Awards: volume in Texas, more actions in Virginia

Virginia’s award count is 1,116,647. Texas’s is 530,634 — about half as many actions for a state with more than three times the people. Award counts mix contracts, grants, loans, and modifications; a $50 modification and a multi-year production contract both increment the tally. Virginia’s higher count lines up with a services-heavy federal market where task orders and modifications pile up. Texas’s 530,634 awards still represent a thick book of federal business, just not the Beltway pattern of many smaller information-technology actions.

Dividing dollars by awards is a blunt instrument and is not a published USAspending average, so this page does not invent a per-award figure. What the two counts do show is that Virginia’s lead is not only a handful of mega-awards. Both the $110.8B total and the 1,116,647 actions sit well above Texas. Anyone comparing the states should keep both columns in view.

Per-capita obligations flip the population story

On a per-resident basis the gap widens. Virginia’s spending per capita is $1,344.24. Texas’s is $686.10 — almost half. Census population is the denominator; USAspending obligations are the numerator. Neither number is a benefit payment to each resident. Per-capita is a scaling device so a state of 31 million is not compared as if it were the same size as a state of 8.8 million.

Texas can still post large headline dollars because the population base is huge. Virginia can post both large dollars and high per-capita intensity because the obligation stock is high and the population is smaller. FY 2026 is the latest fiscal year tagged on this pair; it does not mean the $110.8B and $72.7B totals are a single-year snapshot.

The $686.10 and $1,344.24 per-capita figures use the same Census denominators as the population column: 31,290,831 in Texas and 8,811,195 in Virginia. If a later Census vintage revises those counts, the per-capita ratio will move even if $72.7B and $110.8B stay put. SpendingVault publishes the pair as of the packet facts, with FY 2026 as the latest fiscal year tag.

Pharmaceutical manufacturing vs computer-related services

The leading industry attributed to Texas in this aggregate is pharmaceutical preparation manufacturing. Virginia’s leading industry is other computer related services. Those labels come from NAICS descriptions in the USAspending-derived tables, not from a qualitative ranking of which sector “matters more.” A manufacturing-heavy top code often points to production contracts and supply awards. A computer-services top code often points to professional services, systems work, and related support concentrated around federal buyers.

Top industry is the single largest industry slice in each state’s obligation mix as SpendingVault has it, not a complete industrial census. Texas still has substantial federal work outside pharmaceuticals; Virginia still has work outside computer services. The contrast is still the cleanest industry signal in the packet: pills and preparations in Texas, computer-related services in Virginia.

How to use the Texas–Virginia table

Start with the two obligation totals, then check award counts and per-capita so a large population does not hide a thinner federal footprint. Open the Texas and Virginia state pages for agency, recipient, and industry drill-downs. The comparison hub lists other pairs if the question is “who else sits near Virginia’s $110.8B” rather than Texas specifically.

Cite USAspending.gov as the source of the underlying award records. SpendingVault aggregates those records for state-to-state views. If a figure on a live USAspending download differs from $72.7B or $110.8B, check the date range, the place-of-performance filter, and whether the pull is obligations or outlays — those three choices move the totals.

Texas pharmaceutical preparation manufacturing and Virginia other computer related services are leading labels, not exclusive labels. A researcher who needs the rest of the NAICS table should leave this guide and open the state hubs. The comparison exists so $72.7B versus $110.8B, 530,634 versus 1,116,647 awards, and $686.10 versus $1,344.24 per capita sit in one place, sourced to USAspending.gov obligations.

Questions

Which state has more federal spending, Texas or Virginia?

Virginia has the larger USAspending obligation total at $110.8B, compared with Texas at $72.7B. That ranking uses obligations, not Treasury outlays. Texas has far more residents (31,290,831 vs 8,811,195), so the dollar lead does not mean Texas lacks federal awards — only that Virginia’s recorded obligation stock is higher in this aggregate.

Why is Virginia’s per-capita federal spending higher than Texas?

Virginia’s spending per capita is $1,344.24 versus $686.10 in Texas. The ratio uses Census population as the denominator and USAspending obligations as the numerator. Virginia combines a high $110.8B obligation total with 8,811,195 residents; Texas spreads $72.7B across 31,290,831 residents. Per-capita is not a payment to each person.

Are these figures outlays or obligations?

Obligations. USAspending.gov records the amount agencies commit on awards. Outlays are later cash payments on the Treasury side and can lag, split across years, or come in lower than the original commitment. The $110.8B Virginia total and $72.7B Texas total on this page are obligation aggregates, with FY 2026 as the latest year in the comparison.

What industries dominate Texas and Virginia federal awards?

Texas’s top industry in this comparison is pharmaceutical preparation manufacturing. Virginia’s is other computer related services. Those are the leading NAICS descriptions in SpendingVault’s USAspending aggregates, not an exhaustive list of every federal dollar in either state. Award counts are 530,634 in Texas and 1,116,647 in Virginia.