Upstate NY cities among leaders in US for food stamp recipients

Rochester, Buffalo and Syracuse were among the top 20 cities in the U.S. in 2023 for the percentage of households in each place getting food stamps, according to census data.

Rochester ranked ninth in the U.S., Buffalo 14th and Syracuse 17th for their rates of food stamp households in each city, according to census estimates covering 2023, the most recent year available. The numbers reflect the cities’ rankings among places across the nation with populations of 100,000 or more.

Nearly a third of all households in Rochester, Buffalo and Syracuse receive food stamps, according to the census data.

In Syracuse, it’s 29.4%, which translates into more than 17,800 households.

Over 44% of households with children get food stamps in Syracuse, according to census data.

All three of the cities have long struggled with high rates of poverty.

Syracuse is often at or near the top of lists of cities with the worst rates of child poverty in the U.S., for example.

The city’s high number of food stamp recipients is additional evidence of the challenges its residents face. The program, formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), provides help buying food for people with low incomes.

Albany was the only one of the big four Upstate New York cities outside the top 20 for rate of food stamp recipients in the U.S.

About 16% of that city’s households received the aid in 2023. That ranked Albany 107th nationwide.

You can see a list of the largest cities in New York and the rates of food stamp recipients in each in the table below. If you can’t see the table, click here to open it in a new window.

The city with the highest rate of food stamp recipients in the U.S. in 2023 was Springfield, Massachusetts, according to the census data. Over 48% of all households there received food stamps that year.

That translates into more than 27,000 households.

You can see details of the rate of food stamp recipients for locations across the U.S. in the table below. If you can’t see the table, click here to open it in a new window.

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