Where does Pennsylvania rank for food access among U.S. states?

Pennsylvania ranks #38 of 50 in the lower third on low-access (21.4%), same basis as the national cartogram.

What share of Pennsylvania has low food access?

21.4% of Pennsylvania residents live in low-access areas (population-weighted) (-0.7 pts vs U.S.), per USDA FARA 2019.

How many food deserts are in Pennsylvania?

238 census tracts in Pennsylvania are USDA food deserts (~583K low-income low-access residents); ~3.55 tracts per county.

What is the SNAP participation rate in Pennsylvania?

Across Pennsylvania, 14.2% of households receive SNAP (ACS 2024) (+2.1 pts vs U.S.) - high tercile among states.

Which county in Pennsylvania has the worst food access?

Chester County has the highest low-access share at 45.1% (~8.3% of statewide low-access residents), with 5.6% SNAP.

Signature · 238 LILA tracts (3.55/county)

Food access in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania lands in the lower third on population-weighted low-access (21.4%), so distance is less binding statewide than in the upper band - county pages still show local pockets.

Compiled by Plainfoodaccess, Food Access Editorial Process · December 31, 2024

21.4%
low-access pop.: 238
food-desert tracts: 14.2%
on SNAP: 67
counties

USDA FARA state access plate

State PA · Pennsylvania

LA-ELEVATED · PHOTO-FINISH · LILA-CLUSTER · SNAP-HEAVY · VEH-GAP · BOOK-MID

LA-ELEVATED 21.4% low-access
PHOTO-FINISH -0.7 pts vs US
LILA-CLUSTER 238 food-desert tracts
SNAP-HEAVY 14.2% SNAP
VEH-GAP 10.2% no vehicle
BOOK-MID 67 counties

Nearest low-access peer: Wisconsin (+ 0.0 pts)

Where Pennsylvania sits by county inventory

Pennsylvania covers 67 counties among 51 states and DC (atlas inventory, not a food-access quality ranking). Orthogonal to the low-access / SNAP charts below.

Pennsylvania vs all states by county count

Where this state's county inventory sits among every tracked jurisdiction

67 22nd of 51 higher than 29 of 51 states

Jurisdictions, banded by county inventory

Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more states. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source USDA Food Access Research Atlas / Census county inventory · 2026-06-23

Lower-band statewide picture

Pennsylvania stays in the lower third nationally (21.4%, #38 of 50) with ~2.7M low-access residents and 238 LILA tracts.

#38
among states by low-access: 2.7M
low-access residents: 583K
food-desert residents: 10.2%
households, no vehicle

Population-weighted tract shares. Lower-band statewide means still leave county outliers on the table below.

Pennsylvania among lower low-access states

Pennsylvania ringed at #38 of 50 by population-weighted low-access. Click any state to compare.

USDA Economic Research Service, Food Access Research Atlas (2019), population-weighted · Census ACS 2024 context

Signature read: 238 LILA tracts (3.55/county) .

Pennsylvania lands in the lower third of states on population-weighted low-access (21.4% , #38 of 50). Distance is less binding statewide than in the upper band, yet Chester County still reaches 45.1% locally while SNAP sits at 14.2% .

States near Pennsylvania's lower low-access or SNAP band

Two USDA/ACS-derived peer sets for Pennsylvania. Neighbourhood chart below is local poles; these panels are full-corpus nearest neighbours excluding this state.

Similar low-access share

Nearest population-weighted low-access rates (21.4% here).

Wisconsin · 21.4% low-access
West Virginia · 21.3% low-access
Colorado · 21.5% low-access
Nebraska · 21.9% low-access

Similar SNAP participation

Nearest household SNAP rates (14.2% here), deduped against the low-access panel.

Rhode Island · 14.2% SNAP
Oklahoma · 14.0% SNAP
Massachusetts · 14.6% SNAP
Illinois · 13.7% SNAP

Source: USDA Food Access Research Atlas (2019) + Census ACS 2024 SNAP. Floor county_count ≥ 5.

NM

31.7
NE

21.9
CO

21.5
PA

21.4
WI

21.4
WV

21.3
DC

4.6

Chester

45.1
Forest

39.4
Dauphin

35.4
Bucks

34.6
Sullivan

34.4
Washington

34.4
Erie

34
Westmoreland

32.8

All counties in Pennsylvania

County	Population	Low-access	SNAP	No vehicle	Poverty
Chester County	548K	45.1%	5.6%	4.3%	6.0%
Forest County	7K	39.4%	14.0%	6.7%	11.9%
Dauphin County	290K	35.4%	13.3%	9.4%	12.9%
Bucks County	647K	34.6%	7.8%	4.9%	6.1%
Sullivan County	6K	34.4%	8.1%	5.1%	11.6%
Washington County	210K	34.4%	13.9%	7.3%	9.6%
Erie County	269K	34.0%	19.1%	9.9%	15.0%
Westmoreland County	353K	32.8%	13.9%	6.2%	10.3%
Beaver County	166K	32.5%	13.8%	7.5%	9.9%
Montgomery County	868K	31.3%	6.6%	5.7%	6.5%
York County	463K	29.5%	11.3%	5.9%	8.4%
Cumberland County	268K	27.0%	7.8%	5.0%	7.5%
Allegheny County	1.2M	26.4%	13.0%	11.9%	11.5%
Lehigh County	379K	25.5%	15.4%	8.3%	11.6%
Northampton County	319K	24.5%	10.3%	6.5%	8.8%
Butler County	197K	24.3%	9.0%	5.5%	8.1%
Franklin County	157K	24.3%	11.0%	4.6%	8.5%
Monroe County	168K	23.4%	15.1%	5.5%	10.7%
Tioga County	41K	23.4%	14.0%	5.5%	11.7%
Lycoming County	113K	23.3%	14.9%	9.7%	12.8%
Bedford County	48K	22.7%	15.8%	5.7%	11.6%
Greene County	35K	22.6%	20.8%	4.7%	13.5%
Cambria County	132K	22.3%	18.9%	10.4%	14.2%
Lancaster County	558K	20.4%	9.2%	8.6%	8.2%
Luzerne County	328K	20.3%	19.6%	9.5%	15.3%
Mifflin County	46K	19.6%	17.0%	10.1%	16.2%
Lebanon County	144K	19.5%	12.2%	6.5%	10.1%
Clearfield County	79K	19.3%	19.2%	7.4%	14.6%
Montour County	18K	19.3%	6.5%	8.1%	8.8%
Lawrence County	85K	18.5%	20.4%	8.0%	11.9%
Union County	42K	18.4%	11.8%	9.7%	9.0%
Mercer County	109K	18.2%	17.4%	9.6%	13.2%
Susquehanna County	38K	18.1%	12.9%	5.2%	11.4%
Berks County	433K	17.5%	13.9%	8.7%	12.2%
Elk County	31K	17.3%	14.5%	6.3%	8.7%
Fayette County	126K	16.8%	23.5%	9.0%	16.8%
Blair County	121K	16.2%	17.9%	8.6%	12.0%
Centre County	159K	16.1%	8.3%	11.1%	16.3%
Adams County	106K	15.9%	8.2%	4.5%	8.2%
Delaware County	579K	15.9%	13.3%	9.6%	10.2%
Somerset County	73K	15.9%	14.3%	6.3%	11.0%
Clarion County	37K	15.7%	15.7%	6.5%	13.1%
Lackawanna County	216K	15.3%	17.8%	9.4%	14.4%
Crawford County	83K	14.5%	18.7%	10.5%	14.3%
Bradford County	60K	14.2%	14.5%	6.9%	12.6%
Pike County	61K	12.6%	12.6%	5.3%	9.8%
Clinton County	38K	11.3%	15.9%	9.0%	14.8%
Warren County	38K	10.8%	14.6%	6.2%	10.8%
Columbia County	65K	8.4%	10.7%	7.3%	13.7%
Schuylkill County	144K	8.4%	17.2%	8.0%	12.8%
Indiana County	83K	8.2%	16.3%	7.5%	14.0%
Jefferson County	44K	7.9%	14.9%	8.3%	14.1%
Cameron County	4K	7.6%	26.0%	10.2%	13.5%
Northumberland County	91K	6.6%	15.6%	9.2%	12.6%
Perry County	46K	6.3%	10.6%	5.7%	8.0%
Snyder County	40K	6.2%	10.0%	6.8%	9.4%
Juniata County	23K	5.6%	10.4%	6.9%	9.7%
Venango County	50K	5.3%	19.4%	7.6%	13.2%
Armstrong County	65K	5.2%	15.6%	7.8%	11.8%
Carbon County	65K	5.0%	15.6%	6.4%	12.3%
Potter County	16K	4.8%	14.0%	6.1%	13.0%
McKean County	40K	2.8%	18.6%	8.7%	13.7%
Fulton County	15K	2.4%	13.9%	5.3%	11.2%
Wayne County	51K	2.0%	13.0%	6.9%	12.1%
Huntingdon County	44K	1.7%	13.4%	7.1%	10.6%
Philadelphia County	1.6M	1.1%	26.2%	27.9%	21.4%
Wyoming County	26K	0.9%	15.9%	5.2%	11.5%

Source: USDA ERS Food Access Research Atlas (2019) + U.S. Census Bureau ACS (2024 5-year). Sorted by low-access share, highest first.

Figures from USDA Food Access Research Atlas (2019) and Census ACS 2024 5-year. Compiled 2026-06-23. Methodology · All states.

PlainFoodAccess renders this state summary directly from the USDA Food Access Research Atlas (2019) and U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (2024 5-year estimates), no number is typed in by an editor. Statewide figures for Pennsylvania are population-weighted aggregates of county Atlas and ACS records. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026-06-23. Primary sources: USDA Food Access Research Atlas and Census ACS 5-year estimates.