Top 10 States Most Dependent on the Federal Government

New data show that Southern states are the most reliant on the federal government, with three states in the top 5, and no states in the 'least dependent' category.

According to SmartAsset's measures, Mississippi is the state most reliant on federal funding. Nearly 43 percent of the state government revenue comes from the federal government. Mississippi residents also do not pay much in taxes relative to the support they receive from the federal government -- for every dollar Mississippi sends in income tax, they get back $2.

n order to find the states most dependent on the federal government, we looked at data for all 50 states. Specifically, we looked at the following four factors: federal share of state government revenue, ratio of federal funding to income taxes paid, percent of workers employed by the federal government, ratio of federal wage to private sector wage.

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