Prairie State Wire

Approximately 1.9 million Illinoisans – or about 15 percent of the state’s population – were on food stamp rolls in January 2017, according to a Prairie State Wire analysis of 66 Illinois welfare offices.

Cook County serves 43 percent of Illinois food stamp recipients, according to data obtained from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamps. That’s slightly higher than the portion of the state’s population the county represents. Approximately 41 percent of the 12.8 million people in Illinois reside in Cook County.

Illinois welfare offices are operated by the Illinois Department of Human Services, formerly known as the Illinois Department of Public Aid. It administers SNAP at offices in 52 of the state’s 102 counties, so residents in a county without an office have to travel to one with an office. 

Those 52 counties account for approximately 92 percent of the state’s population. This may, in part, account for why the portion of SNAP participants in a given county is higher than the portion of Illinois residents living in that county.

For example, Kendall County residents are directed to Aurora in Kane County for services such as SNAP. 

This may explain why Kane County’s two welfare offices serve about 8 percent of the state’s SNAP recipients, though its population amounts to a little more than 4 percent of the state’s total population.

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Illinois counties' share of SNAP recipients

Office located in	County population	Recipients population January 2017	County as portion of state population	County office recipients as portion of state SNAP participants
Cook County	5,238,000	804,740	40.92%	43.09%
Kane County	530,847	156,610	4.15%	8.38%
Will County	687,263	70,878	5.37%	3.79%
Winnebago County	287,078	69,091	2.24%	3.70%
DuPage County	933,736	65,617	7.29%	3.51%
Lake County	703,910	63,062	5.50%	3.38%
St. Clair County	264,052	46,402	2.06%	2.48%
Madison County	266,209	39,824	2.08%	2.13%
Peoria County	186,221	38,754	1.45%	2.07%
Sangamon County	198,712	33,456	1.55%	1.79%
Champaign County	208,861	27,148	1.63%	1.45%
Macon County	107,303	26,728	0.84%	1.43%
McLean County	173,166	24,795	1.35%	1.33%
Kankakee County	110,879	24,753	0.87%	1.33%
Coles County	52,521	24,027	0.41%	1.29%
Rock Island County	146,133	23,573	1.14%	1.26%
LaSalle County	111,333	21,619	0.87%	1.16%
McHenry County	307,343	19,512	2.40%	1.04%
Vermillion County	79,282	19,063	0.62%	1.02%
Tazewell County	134,800	17,645	1.05%	0.94%
Marion County	38,339	15,735	0.30%	0.84%
Adams County	67,013	15,362	0.52%	0.82%
Jackson County	59,362	13,677	0.46%	0.73%
Williamson County	67,466	12,931	0.53%	0.69%
DeKalb County	104,352	12,302	0.82%	0.66%
Jefferson County	38,353	10,786	0.30%	0.58%
Stephenson County	45,749	10,580	0.36%	0.57%
Whiteside County	57,079	10,448	0.45%	0.56%
Franklin County	39,485	10,006	0.31%	0.54%
Saline County	24,548	9,801	0.19%	0.52%
Knox County	51,441	9,603	0.40%	0.51%
Ogle County	51,659	9,405	0.40%	0.50%
Logan County	29,494	7,805	0.23%	0.42%
Richland County	16,029	7,728	0.13%	0.41%
Morgan County	34,828	6,981	0.27%	0.37%
Macoupin County	46,045	6,877	0.36%	0.37%
Henry County	35,699	6,782	0.28%	0.36%
Bureau County	33,587	6,587	0.26%	0.35%
Jersey County	22,372	6,521	0.17%	0.35%
Montgomery County	28,898	6,309	0.23%	0.34%
Randolph County	32,852	6,193	0.26%	0.33%
Christian County	33,642	6,050	0.26%	0.32%
Fulton County	35,699	5,926	0.28%	0.32%
Union County	17,408	5,125	0.14%	0.27%
Wabash County	11,542	4,853	0.09%	0.26%
Warren County	17,527	4,848	0.14%	0.26%
Pulaski County	5,678	4,202	0.04%	0.22%
McDonough County	31,333	4,105	0.24%	0.22%
Massac County	14,766	3,913	0.12%	0.21%
Crawford County	19,414	3,559	0.15%	0.19%
Cass County	12,847	2,998	0.10%	0.16%
Mason County	13,701	2,475	0.11%	0.13%
		1,867,770	92.70%	100.00%

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture