Total WIC participation increased for fourth straight year in FY 2025

USDA’s Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) provides supplemental food packages, nutrition education, breastfeeding support, and health care referrals at no cost to low-income pregnant and postpartum women, infants younger than 1 year old, and children 1 to 5 years old who are at nutritional risk. More than half of WIC participants are children (56 percent), followed by women (22 percent), and infants (22 percent). Total participation in WIC increased for the first time in more than a decade in fiscal year (FY) 2022, and this increase continued through FY 2025. Participation averaged 6.9 million people a month in FY 2025, a 2-percent increase from 6.7 million in FY 2024. This was the fourth consecutive increase in overall participation, and it resulted from increased numbers of participants in all three categories: women, infants, and children. The number of women participating in WIC increased by 2 percent, the number of infants participating in WIC increased by 0.3 percent, and children participating increased by 4 percent from FY 2024. Prior to the recent increases, WIC participation had been trending downward since reaching a record high of 9.18 million people in FY 2010. This chart appears in the USDA, Economic Research Service’s Food and Nutrition Assistance Landscape: Fiscal Year 2025 Annual Report, released June 23, 2026.