FNS Documents & Resources

In appreciation of breastfeeding mothers and of all the dedicated volunteers, professionals, communities, and organizations who support their efforts, I, Sonny Perdue, Secretary of Agriculture, do hereby proclaim August 1-7, 2019, as National WIC Breastfeeding Week.

The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 (the Act), PL 111-296, established a new reporting requirement for the WIC Program. The Department of Agriculture is now mandated to compile and publish annually, breastfeeding performance measurements based on program participant data on the number of partially and fully breastfed infants for each WIC state and local agency.

In the average month of 2018, an estimated 11.9 million people were eligible to receive benefits from WIC. Of that group, 6.7 million people participated in the program, meaning the share of eligible people who participated in WIC (the coverage rate) was 57 percent. 

This report, the latest in a series of annual reports on WIC eligibility, presents 2018 national and state estimates of the number of people eligible for WIC benefits and the percents of the eligible population and the US population covered by the program, including estimates by participant category. 

Enrollment for the WIC Program in April 2018 totaled 7,837,672*. Of this total, Whites accounted for 4,609,636 (58.81%), Blacks/African Americans 1,687,947 (21.54%), American Indian/Alaskan Natives 696,174 (8.88%), Multiple Race 476,797 (6.08%), Asians 296,303 (3.78%), Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders 63,639 (0.81%).

​​This report supplements FNS administrative data on total food costs by estimating the average monthly food costs for each WIC participant category and food package type. It also estimates total pre- and post-rebate dollars spent on 18 major categories of WIC-eligible foods in FY 2018.

The WIC Infant and Toddler Feeding Practices Study-2 (WIC ITFPS-2), also known as the “Feeding My Baby" Study, is the only national study to capture data on caregivers and their children over the first 6 years of the child's life regardless of their continued participation in WIC. Overall, the study examines child-feeding practices, associations between WIC services and those practices, and the health and nutrition outcomes of children who received WIC around birth. This report, the fifth in the series generated from this study, focuses on the dietary intake patterns and weight status of children during the fourth year of life. The report also examines families' WIC experiences and their perceptions of the program's impact.

WIC Participant and Program Characteristics 2018 summarizes the demographic characteristics of participants nationwide in April 2018. It includes information on participant income and nutrition risk characteristics, estimates breastfeeding initiation rates for WIC infants, and describes WIC members of migrant farm-worker families.