North Dakota received $6.6 billion of the $2.3 trillion in funds the federal government distributed nationally in 2005, an increase of 9.6 percent from 2004.

“North Dakota continues to pull in significant federal dollars to fund an increasingly diverse set of changes and opportunities,” says Richard Rathge, North Dakota State Data Center director at North Dakota State University. “More than 400 federal grants were awarded to the state and $1.2 billion was given to North Dakota in the form of Social Security, most of which goes to serve our growing elderly population.”

This month’s “Population Bulletin,” a monthly publication from the North Dakota State Data Center, focuses on federal expenditure data obtained from the 2005 Consolidated Federal Funds Report published by the U.S. Census Bureau. That’s the last year for which this data is available.

During the mid- to late 1990s, federal dollars flowing into North Dakota showed little variation, averaging approximately $4 billion per year. From 1999 through 2002, federal expenditures to North Dakota increased, on average, 12.4 percent per year. Federal expenditures decreased 11 percent from 2002 to 2003 and then increased 5.4 percent in 2004 and another 9.6 percent in 2005.

A sizeable proportion of North Dakota’s increase in 2005 can be attributed to an increase in crop insurance payments and grant funds for the crop disaster program. In 2005, 10 percent of all federal funds entering North Dakota were for crop insurance ($630 million), up from 7 percent in 2004 ($441 million). Grant funds for the crop disaster program totaled $260 million in 2005, up from $131 million in 2004.

Of the $6.6 billion the federal government spent in North Dakota in 2005, nearly one-fourth of the monies went to Social Security ($1.2 billion). Medicare and crop insurance payments each accounted for 10 percent of total funds to North Dakota. Direct payments and grant monies associated with agriculture (other than crop insurance) amounted to $764 million in 2005, which was 12 percent of the total federal expenditures to North Dakota.

Procurement contracts (governmental purchases and contractual outlays) to North Dakota totaled $504 million and salaries/wages for federal employees in North Dakota were $806 million.

While North Dakota received less than half a percent of all federal funds distributed nationally, the state fared better on a per-capita basis. Per-capita federal expenditures to North Dakota totaled $10,413 in 2005, which ranked North Dakota fifth in the nation for per-capita federal expenditures. Nationally, per-capita federal expenditures totaled $7,568 in 2005, which was 27 percent below North Dakota’s level. Per-capita federal funds to North Dakota ranged from a low of $5,770 in Mercer County to a high of $26,794 in Steele County.

NDSU Agriculture Communication