State Fact Sheets: Trends in WIC Coverage and Participation

The federally funded WIC program — the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children — improves lifetime health for low-income pregnant and postpartum people, infants, and young children, but only about half of those eligible participate.

The share of eligible people who participate in WIC, known as the coverage rate, varies widely by geography and participant group. In 2023, the nationwide coverage rate increased for the second year in a row, to 56.1 percent. But state coverage rates ranged from 41.3 to 79.6 percent (Puerto Rico’s coverage rate was 83.8 percent). Pregnant people and children ages 1 through 4 are most likely to miss out, along with eligible people living in non-metropolitan areas. Nearly half of WIC-eligible people receiving Medicaid or SNAP did not access WIC, despite being automatically income-eligible, with 4 in 5 WIC-eligible pregnant Medicaid enrollees missing out. Although eligible Hispanic and Black people participate at higher rates than eligible white people, a third of Hispanic people and half of eligible Black people miss out.

State variation suggests that state policies and practices can affect WIC utilization. Increasing WIC coverage across the board — and for pregnant people of color and their infants in particular — can be an important part of a strategy to improve pregnancy-related and child health, mitigate the large pregnancy-related health disparities affecting these communities, and advance racial equity in other aspects of pregnancy-related and child health and food security.

In the map below, click on a state for a fact sheet showing WIC coverage rates and participation over time and for various categories, along with maternal and child health measures and an estimate of the additional funding the state would have received with a higher coverage rate.