Vigo, Vermillion and Sullivan counties are among 18 with the highest percentages of residents receiving federal transfer payments such as SNAP, Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, Social Security Disability and others. Courtesy Ball State Center for Business and Economic Research
Federal assistance programs pepper conversations from kitchen tables to coffee shops, bars and social-media platforms — the latter being the most prevalent, yet least accurate of all those forums.
Opinions are plentiful about those programs. Mention SNAP, Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security or Social Security Disability payments and the commentaries instantly flow.
Especially right now, with SNAP benefits that help feed 41.7 million Americans and 571,000 Hoosiers at risk of drying up on Saturday because of the federal government shutdown.
Spoiler alert: The perceptions about federal assistance most commonly shared don’t reflect reality.
For example, the Indiana counties most reliant on such funds — cumulatively known as federal transfer payments — are those with large cities, right?
“Rural places are the big recipients of transfer payments, and urban places are the biggest payers,” said Michael Hicks, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at Ball State University.
The Hoosier counties with the highest percentages of personal incomes derived from federal transfer payments are Fayette (population 23,414), Blackford (11,757), Starke (23,592), Crawford (10,604) and Orange (19,937). “I would think [most people] would not say, ‘Fayette, Blackford, Starke, Crawford and Orange counties,’” Hicks said in a Tuesday phone interview.
Those with the lowest share incomes from federal transfers aren’t surprising — the affluent Indianapolis rim counties of Harrison, Boone and Hendricks. But Marion County (987,602), which includes Indy, is ninth-lowest, Hicks said.
Closer to home, Vigo County (106,279) and its neighbors Vermillion (15,669) and Sullivan (20,714) rank among the 18 with the highest percentages of personal incomes derived from total federal transfer payments.
In Vigo, those federal payments account for 30.38% of personal incomes. It’s even higher in Vermillion with 31.85% and Sullivan with 32.11% of personal incomes coming from total federal transfer payments — SNAP, Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, Social Security Disability and others.
Hicks and the Center for Business and Economic Research studied that data in late 2025 and released a report earlier this year.
Each of the federal transfer programs has vaulted into Americans’ thoughts at various moments this year. Right now, SNAP is a foremost concern. Formerly known as food stamps, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program’s benefits to 12.3% of Americans is under threat to end as of Saturday. The stubborn standoff between Republicans — who control the White House, the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate — and the minority Democrats has continued since Oct. 1.
The sticking point involves a different area. Republicans don’t have the 60 votes necessary to pass a short-term government spending bill, and need Democrats to do so. But Democrats want an extension of the tax credits that help nearly 24 million Americans afford health insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace. With neither side budging, the shutdown has continued to the brink of a point at which SNAP benefits run out.
A federal court ruling to prevent such a cutoff of SNAP aid was brewing on Thursday, the Washington Post and NPR reported.
In Vigo, SNAP alone accounts for more than 7% of personal incomes, placing it among the highest 18 counties. Statewide, about 1 in 11 Hoosiers receive SNAP benefits. Of those, more than 69% are in families with children, 38% are families with seniors or disabled persons, and 34% are in working families, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan research institution founded in 1981.
The average benefit for households receiving SNAP is $6.45 a day per family member.
Another misperception surrounds anti-poverty federal transfers such as SNAP and Medicaid. Undocumented immigrants are ineligible for those benefits, Hicks pointed out, with rare exceptions.
In Vigo and Sullivan counties, between 6.51% and 7.5% of personal incomes come from public-assisted medical benefits (such as Medicaid). Both also are among the state’s highest.
By contrast, the effective tax rate paid by residents in Sullivan and Vermillion counties ranks among Indiana’s lowest at between 8.9% and 9.5%, while Vigo’s is a more middle-of-the-pack 11.51% to 12%, according to Hicks’ data.
Across the state, personal incomes in counties in metropolitan areas get an average of 20.2% of total personal incomes through federal transfer payments. In the state’s non-metropolitan counties, that figure is 26.6%.
“That’s kind of a shocking number,” Hicks said.
For many, their mental demographic of the average person getting SNAP or Medicaid benefits differs from reality. Statistically, the profile of the average recipient is a recently divorced mother of two kids.
“If you look at the data,” Hicks said, “it tells a vastly different story.”
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