Sources: 2008-2019 Current Population Survey, Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS-ASEC) for US estimate, 2007-2018 Puerto Rico Community Survey and census for territories, WIC administrative data, and WIC participant and program characteristics report.
Note on years: Because of processing changes to the 2019 CPS-ASEC used to produce the 2018 estimates, the 2018 WIC eligibility estimates are not completely consistent with estimates based on data using the earlier processing system. To create a clearer picture of recent trends in WIC eligibility, the historical 2016 and 2017 estimates were updated using alternate versions of the 2017 and 2018 CPS-ASEC files the U.S. Census Bureau had created to test the new processing procedures. The 2016 and 2017 estimates in this graphic will not match estimates in previous versions of this graphics series. The years with gray buttons (2007-2015) show estimates from the old series and the years with green buttons (2016-2018) show estimates from the new series.
Definitions: "Postpartum women" includes breastfeeding and non-breastfeeding women. The estimated coverage rates exceed 100 percent for postpartum non-breastfeeding women. See chapter 6 of the full report for more information on measures of statistical uncertainty for the eligibility estimates.