Trump & DOGE cuts continue. Just how dependent is Illinois on the federal government?
Illinois is one of the least-dependent states on the federal government, according to a March 10 report from financial website WalletHub.
The Land of Lincoln ranked 43rd in WalletHub’s Most & Least Federally Dependent States 2025 ranking, with 50th place representing the least dependent state. Missouri ranked 18th.
The ranking evaluated states based on three categories: the return on taxes paid to the federal government, the share of federal jobs and federal funding as a share of state revenue. Sources included the Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Census Bureau, USAspending.gov and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
While Illinois ranked low for federal dependence on the government, the state ranked among the worst for having high tax rates. TurboTax, a tax filing software company, reports Illinois has the second-highest property tax rate and the seventh-highest average sales tax rate.
Federal agencies have experienced mass layoffs under the Trump administration in recent months. Additionally, the newly created Department of Government Efficiency has been slashing programming, contracts, leases and more in an effort to cut federal spending.
How dependent is Illinois on the federal government?
Illinois ranked 48th for WalletHub’s state residents’ dependency metric and 32nd for state government’s dependency, with a total score of 27.84. The “most dependent” state got a score of 87.04, while the lowest ranked state for dependency scored a 13.94.
“The fairest way to redistribute federal resources back to the states would be based on need, targeting the states that are unable or unwilling to address regional and household disparities on their own, and based inversely on past investments. In other words, regions that have not been the target of large federal investments in the past should receive the highest priority for future investments,” Rick Funderburg, associate professor at the University of Illinois Springfield’s School of Public Management and Policy and Collaborating Scholar with the Institute of Government & Public Affairs, told WalletHub, in part.
Illinois ranked 47th for return on taxes paid to the federal government, 40th on the share of federal jobs and 32nd on federal funding as a share of state revenue, according to WalletHub data shared with the News-Democrat.
Although the ranking found Illinois is among the least-dependent states on the federal government, many state agencies and programs still rely on federal funding. Gov. J.B. Pritzker said in late February the Trump administration was withholding nearly $1.9 billion from Illinois state agencies, small businesses and nonprofits, St. Louis Public Radio reported Feb. 27.
Two federal judges have moved to block the Trump administration from freezing funding for congressionally approved federal programs and grants, but the judicial decisions’ effect on federal funding to Illinois wasn’t immediately clear.
One of the major programs Illinois officials are worried will be affected by cuts is Medicaid, which covers 3.4 million people in the state, or about 1 in 4 Illinois residents. Senate Republicans have been debating whether to overhaul Medicaid in order to pay for Trump administration tax cut proposals.
Programs that provide food to schoolchildren have already been affected, such as the Local Food for Schools, which supported more than 2,000 Illinois schools and more than 1 million students in accessing locally grown food. Funding for this program will last through the end of January 2026 before ending, according to the State Journal-Register.
How did the other states compare?
Alaska, Kentucky, West Virginia, Mississippi and South Carolina were named the five most-dependent states, while New Jersey, California, Delaware, Massachusetts and Utah rounded out the bottom five spots.
Here’s how all 50 states performed, from WalletHub:
Most of the data used to compile the ranking were from 2023 and 2024, WalletHub reports.
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