Indiana ranked No. 17 among 49 states and U.S. territories that saw reductions in food stamps participation, according to the latest numbers compiled by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

Indiana had 649,118 residents participating in the federal SNAP program in September 2017, compared to 602,029 in September 2018, the latest month with available data.

The year-over-year change represented a 7.3 percent drop.

For all the states and territories in the analysis, the number of people taking part in SNAP declined by 9.2 percent over the same year-over-year comparison.

SNAP, which is a unit of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, provides nutritional assistance to millions of low-income families and individuals nationwide. The federal government describes SNAP as “the largest program in the domestic hunger safety net.”

Data for Rhode Island was not reported to the USDA.

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Which States Recorded the Largest Drops in Food Stamp Recipients?

Rank	State / Territory	September 2017	August 2018 (preliminary)	September 2018 (initial)	% Change September 2018 vs. August 2018	Year-over-Year % Change
1	Texas	5,311,725	3,620,064	3,602,528	-0.50%	-32.20%
2	North Carolina	1,038,992	901,940	843,088	-6.50%	-18.90%
3	Alaska	101,439	86,149	86,034	-0.10%	-15.20%
4	District of Columbia	124,075	107,050	108,377	1.20%	-12.70%
5	Wyoming	30,587	27,391	26,987	-1.50%	-11.80%
6	South Carolina	696,654	629,959	620,912	-1.40%	-10.90%
7	Kentucky	649,065	583,875	579,199	-0.80%	-10.80%
8	Utah	198,502	182,667	180,032	-1.40%	-9.30%
9	Mississippi	528,067	489,938	479,423	-2.10%	-9.20%
10	Tennessee	1,022,588	943,013	930,386	-1.30%	-9.00%
11	South Dakota	91,018	84,361	82,986	-1.60%	-8.80%
12	Florida	3,217,150	2,947,869	2,941,835	-0.20%	-8.60%
13	New Hampshire	89,693	83,466	82,092	-1.60%	-8.50%
14	Idaho	162,292	150,781	149,387	-0.90%	-8.00%
15	Michigan	1,332,382	1,244,328	1,230,552	-1.10%	-7.60%
16	Maine	173,067	161,686	160,087	-1.00%	-7.50%
17	Indiana	649,118	606,211	602,029	-0.70%	-7.30%
18	Iowa	359,201	335,057	333,402	-0.50%	-7.20%
19	Arizona	898,552	838,416	838,485	0.00%	-6.70%
20	New Jersey	788,641	742,303	735,850	-0.90%	-6.70%
21	Connecticut	403,323	377,531	377,649	0.00%	-6.40%
22	Montana	118,297	112,123	110,916	-1.10%	-6.20%
23	Arkansas	385,494	362,440	362,454	0.00%	-6.00%
24	Oregon	652,429	619,273	614,529	-0.80%	-5.80%
25	Washington	902,796	852,952	850,732	-0.30%	-5.80%
26	Illinois	1,861,915	1,765,985	1,757,609	-0.50%	-5.60%
27	Missouri	756,634	719,012	714,356	-0.60%	-5.60%
28	Vermont	74,715	70,874	70,620	-0.40%	-5.50%
29	West Virginia	333,919	316,195	315,408	-0.20%	-5.50%
30	Delaware	144,641	138,586	136,761	-1.30%	-5.40%
31	Georgia	1,588,084	1,529,027	1,504,422	-1.60%	-5.30%
32	Wisconsin	673,098	640,315	637,586	-0.40%	-5.30%
33	Minnesota	445,535	426,388	422,155	-1.00%	-5.20%
34	North Dakota	53,523	51,183	50,733	-0.90%	-5.20%
35	Louisiana	894,313	852,608	848,859	-0.40%	-5.10%
36	Alabama	790,882	756,688	751,235	-0.70%	-5.00%
37	California	4,040,313	3,875,364	3,846,268	-0.80%	-4.80%
38	Maryland	668,216	639,567	637,475	-0.30%	-4.60%
39	Nebraska	173,488	166,981	165,496	-0.90%	-4.60%
40	Virginia	753,721	726,202	719,439	-0.90%	-4.50%
41	New York	2,854,907	2,751,082	2,733,500	-0.60%	-4.30%
42	Ohio	1,449,403	1,401,376	1,395,560	-0.40%	-3.70%
43	Oklahoma	600,783	583,042	581,866	-0.20%	-3.10%
44	Hawaii	166,398	161,692	161,550	-0.10%	-2.90%
45	Pennsylvania	1,841,128	1,801,513	1,796,760	-0.30%	-2.40%
46	New Mexico	463,720	455,481	454,804	-0.10%	-1.90%
47	Nevada	442,981	439,822	437,137	-0.60%	-1.30%
48	Guam	45,117	45,356	44,722	-1.40%	-0.90%
49	Massachusetts	766,805	771,602	765,641	-0.80%	-0.20%
50	Colorado	448,675	455,186	455,773	0.10%	1.60%
51	Kansas	205,870	213,641	212,522	-0.50%	3.20%
52	Virgin Islands	25,406	28,646	28,933	1.00%	13.90%
	U.S. Total	42,489,337	38,874,257	38,577,141	-0.80%	-9.20%

Source: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)