Federal spending in California

The record

$485.8 billion

Obligations performed here, FY2025

$485,750,421,988, across every agency and award type.

1 of 56

Rank

Among states and territories with reported obligations.

$12,343

Per resident

Divided by 39,355,309 residents, 2025 estimate.

The per-resident figure is $485,750,421,988 divided by 39,355,309, the 2025 resident population estimate from U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 Population Estimates. It is dollars of federally obligated work recorded in California per resident. It is not federal money received by residents, and it is not a payment anyone receives.

Federal obligations in California across fiscal years

Largest agencies

The 15 largest of 54 agencies with obligations here. California accounts for 9.3% of the $5,235,564,841,891 that carries a place-of-performance state.

Largest counties

The 10 counties in California with the most federal obligations recorded in them. The second column matters: where a county’s figure is largely direct payments, it is telling you where those payments are recorded rather than where work was performed. Nationally, the counties at the top of that ranking are almost entirely direct payments, which is why contracts are ranked separately.

Federal employment

182,276

Federal civilian employees, as of March 1, 2025

Stationed here, by duty station, from OPM FedScope.

1 of 52

Rank

Among states and territories OPM reports.

$115,994

Average salary

The published mean across those employees.

A different source, a different date and a different question from the money above: this is who works here, not what was obligated here. FedScope covers most of the executive branch and not all of it — the intelligence agencies, the Postal Service, the uniformed military, the legislative branch and the courts are outside it, and contractors are not federal employees.

Congressional districts

Every congressional district the publisher reports in California, in the order it ranks nationally. Nothing in this record says who decided where the money went: a district is where the work was recorded as performed, not a member of Congress’s account.

Related

• Federal spending
• All states
• All agencies

California elsewhere on the Factbook

• Reported crime Crime and justice

  Offenses reported to police by type, the trend, and the reporting coverage.

• Most dangerous cities in California Crime and justice

  What each agency serving 25,000 or more reported, ranked. Agency populations overlap, so these do not add up to the state.

• Prison population Crime and justice

  People held under the state’s correctional authority, and the imprisonment rate. A different publisher counting a different thing.

• Arrests by race, sex and age Crime and justice

  Arrests as the FBI’s participating agencies reported them, with what the figures can and cannot support at the top.

• Hate crime Crime and justice

  Incidents reported to the FBI by bias motivation, as counts — the collection publishes no participation share, so there is no rate to compare states on.

• Registered nonprofits Nonprofits

  How many organizations the IRS lists in the state, what they report as revenue, and which kinds of work they do.

• Payments to doctors Health

  What drug and device companies reported paying doctors with a practice address in the state, and the largest recipients.

• Immigration courts Immigration and the border

  The EOIR courts sitting in the state, what they completed and still have pending, and how far apart their asylum grant rates are. The courts, not the state’s residents: a detention court hears cases from far outside it.

• Farm program payments Farm subsidies

  What the Farm Service Agency paid through the state’s county offices, by program and by recipient. The offices that administered the payments, not a count of farms: a recipient addressed elsewhere is counted where they were paid.

• Paycheck Protection Program loans PPP loans

  The PPP loans SBA guaranteed to businesses operating in the state, by county, with how many carry a forgiveness amount and how many were charged off. Loans, not businesses: a business with two draws is two loans.

• Public schools Schools

  Pupils, schools and teachers, the largest districts, what districts spend per pupil and where the money comes from, and the colleges that take federal student aid.

• Banks and credit unions Banks and credit unions

  The FDIC-insured banks headquartered in the state and their offices, and the credit unions based there and their sites, each per resident and against every other state.

• Housing Housing

  The homes under HUD’s rental assistance programs in the state, by program and county, and its tax-credit housing, each per resident and against every other state.

• Mortgage lending Mortgage lending

  The mortgage applications, loans and denials lenders reported in the state under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, and its largest lenders and counties.

• College athletics Sports

  Every college in the state that reported to the Equity in Athletics survey, ranked by its athletics revenue, with its expenses, athletes and athletic aid.

• Federal civilian workforce Federal salaries

  Federal civilian employees stationed in the state by agency and occupation, with the pay OPM publishes and the share it withholds.

• The California Factbook entry Across the Factbook

  Every measure the Factbook publishes for this state in one place, each with where it ranks among the others and the record it came from.

The immigration link above is EOIR’s courts, which sit in this state. CBP’s encounters are not by state and will not be: its sectors and field offices are areas of responsibility rather than a geography, and assigning them to states would be a claim the data does not make. Immigration and the border.