USAspending FY2026 - concentration snapshot
A small share of federal award recipients captures most positive dollars
In the current FY2026 USAspending award-transaction table, 93,265 recipients have positive net obligations. The top 10 capture 23.98% of positive dollars, the top 100 capture 59.15%, and the top 1% capture 83.44%. HHI is 101.73, but Gini is 0.97, showing a very unequal recipient distribution.
Key findings
current FY2026 USAspending award transactions are in the committed snapshot as of 2026-06-05. Net obligation totals $1.361T.
of positive net recipient dollars are captured by the top 10 recipients. The top 100 capture 59.15%.
of positive net recipient dollars are captured by the top 1%, which is 933 recipients out of 93,265 positive-obligation recipients.
is the Lorenz-style Gini coefficient over positive net recipient obligations. HHI is 101.73, low concentration by HHI thresholds.
Department of Health and Human Services is the largest agency slice by positive recipient obligations; its top 10 recipients capture 46.19% of that agency slice.
of the separate contract-focused procurement_awards slice is marked with a set-aside status. This slice is separate because the full transaction table does not expose set_aside_type.
At a glance
Answer table
| Segment | Recipients | Positive obligation | Top 10 share | Top 100 share | Top 1% share | HHI | Gini |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All positive-obligation recipients | 93,265 | $1.370T | 23.98% | 59.15% | 83.44% | 101.73 | 0.97 |
Total obligations by year
The current production table contains FY2026 rows from 2025-10-01 through 2026-06-05. The total below is net federal_action_obligation, including de-obligations.
| Fiscal year | Transactions | Distinct recipients | Net obligation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 3,899,789 | 132,957 | $1.361T |
Top recipients
Recipient names and UEIs are public USAspending records. This table is a top-N dollar table only: it does not assign a score, label, quality claim, or compliance inference to any recipient. The leading row is HEALTH CARE SERVICES, CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF at $83.3B, or 6.08% of positive net recipient obligations.
| Rank | Recipient name as published | UEI | Transactions | Positive obligation | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | HEALTH CARE SERVICES, CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF | JE73CDQUAPA7 | 67 | $83.3B | 6.08% |
| 2 | NYS DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH | F863WQVMZSK7 | 210 | $55.8B | 4.07% |
| 3 | HEALTH & HUMAN SVC COMMN TX | G6JLG3FANUA9 | 180 | $35.6B | 2.60% |
| 4 | PA DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES | FYVAZVJGDFA4 | 169 | $30.4B | 2.22% |
| 5 | NORTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES | DKT3LLBWFVL3 | 588 | $24.2B | 1.76% |
| 6 | OHIO DEPARTMENT OF MEDICAID | HFRCKLH34V17 | 30 | $22.1B | 1.61% |
| 7 | DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL & HEALTH SERVICES | SEYQXMXJLUP5 | 122 | $22.0B | 1.61% |
| 8 | MICHIGAN DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES | C2AQVDYYUAS7 | 449 | $20.4B | 1.49% |
| 9 | ILLINOIS DEPARTMENT OF HEALTHCARE & FAMILY SERVICES | UF4TC1RLR6K7 | 57 | $18.3B | 1.33% |
| 10 | VA DEPARTMENT OF MEDICAL ASSISTANCE SERVICE | V3KPBX5HSYG5 | 25 | $16.6B | 1.21% |
Concentration by agency
Each agency slice recomputes recipient concentration inside that agency. The largest agency slice is Department of Health and Human Services, where the top 10 recipients capture 46.19% of positive dollars in the slice.
| Agency | Recipients | Transactions | Positive obligation | Top 10 share | Top 100 share | HHI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Department of Health and Human Services | 7,798 | 140,296 | $677.7B | 46.19% | 91.30% | 363.22 |
| Department of Defense | 22,729 | 1,738,785 | $172.8B | 21.80% | 56.55% | 73.51 |
| Department of Agriculture | 7,836 | 44,096 | $105.6B | 38.17% | 88.49% | 240.04 |
| Department of Homeland Security | 3,788 | 63,053 | $64.1B | 48.33% | 87.18% | 503.15 |
| Department of Housing and Urban Development | 23,409 | 107,641 | $62.7B | 16.24% | 43.06% | 59.13 |
| Department of Transportation | 3,323 | 100,627 | $61.2B | 40.00% | 84.14% | 237.36 |
| Department of Education | 6,315 | 357,084 | $54.4B | 22.74% | 54.35% | 82.43 |
| Department of Veterans Affairs | 7,703 | 69,643 | $44.8B | 63.31% | 80.72% | 712.13 |
| Department of Energy | 1,205 | 8,616 | $44.6B | 60.89% | 97.51% | 484.67 |
| General Services Administration | 2,260 | 815,550 | $15.7B | 38.52% | 80.21% | 214.50 |
| National Aeronautics and Space Administration | 1,531 | 15,175 | $11.7B | 46.57% | 86.83% | 326.52 |
| Department of State | 2,459 | 23,087 | $9.9B | 58.06% | 87.19% | 786.36 |
Concentration by NAICS
NAICS slices are limited to valid six-digit NAICS codes in the transaction table. NAICS 236220 is the largest slice by positive obligation, and its top 10 recipients capture 74.52% of dollars in that code.
| NAICS | Recipients | Transactions | Positive obligation | Top 10 share | Top 100 share | HHI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 236220 | 1,914 | 15,786 | $33.8B | 74.52% | 90.75% | 1588.25 |
| 561210 | 1,109 | 14,766 | $28.0B | 79.60% | 94.50% | 922.64 |
| 336411 | 413 | 4,820 | $26.5B | 89.47% | 99.93% | 1263.74 |
| 541330 | 2,046 | 26,528 | $20.5B | 30.92% | 67.46% | 212.50 |
| 524114 | 93 | 1,079 | $20.0B | 95.93% | 100.00% | 3087.69 |
| 541715 | 3,759 | 21,643 | $19.5B | 48.12% | 80.78% | 481.53 |
| 541512 | 976 | 15,646 | $14.8B | 50.68% | 85.23% | 341.06 |
| 325412 | 220 | 10,463 | $12.0B | 96.79% | 99.94% | 5113.98 |
| 336414 | 55 | 1,138 | $11.5B | 89.80% | 100.00% | 1512.25 |
| 336611 | 713 | 8,335 | $11.2B | 78.20% | 97.99% | 811.21 |
| 541519 | 1,659 | 25,403 | $10.1B | 29.83% | 70.75% | 133.85 |
| 621111 | 407 | 1,633 | $7.8B | 97.29% | 99.63% | 2347.90 |
Set-aside slice
The full award-transaction table does not expose set_aside_type. To answer the set-aside question without inventing fields, this section uses public.procurement_awards as a separate contract-focused slice. In that slice, set-aside rows account for $224.2M, or 0.04% of dollars. SBA-certification match rows are unavailable in the current snapshot, so the match columns below should not be read as evidence that no recipient is small.
| Status | Award records | Recipients | Obligation | Share | SBA match recipients |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Not set aside or not reported | 16,349 | 442 | $616.3B | 99.96% | 0 |
| Set aside | 430 | 11 | $224.2M | 0.04% | 0 |
Set-aside types
| Set-aside type as published | Award records | Recipients | Obligation | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NO SET ASIDE USED. | 480 | 49 | $404.7B | 65.6% |
| (not reported) | 15,869 | 399 | $211.6B | 34.3% |
| SERVICE DISABLED VETERAN OWNED SMALL BUSINESS SET-ASIDE | 108 | 3 | $110.4M | 0% |
| SMALL BUSINESS SET ASIDE - TOTAL | 253 | 10 | $75.8M | 0% |
| HUBZONE SET-ASIDE | 65 | 1 | $36.4M | 0% |
| SDVOSB SOLE SOURCE | 3 | 1 | $1.6M | 0% |
| SMALL BUSINESS SET ASIDE - PARTIAL | 1 | 1 | $25,798 | 0% |
Method
Recipient concentration is computed from positive net recipient obligations only. Totals still report net federal_action_obligation, including de-obligations. The top-1% bucket is ceil(positive recipients * 0.01). HHI is 10,000 times the sum of squared recipient shares within the segment, using positive net recipient obligations. A value below 1,500 is commonly considered low concentration. Gini is a Lorenz-style inequality coefficient over positive net recipient obligations, sorted from smallest to largest recipient total. It ranges from 0 for equal distribution to 1 for maximum inequality.
Set-aside status is computed from public.procurement_awards.set_aside_type. Current Fonteum SBA certification rows are not populated, so confirmed SBA-certified recipient matches are reported as 0 and caveated as unavailable, not as evidence that no recipient is small.
The SQL is published so the calculation can be reproduced against the same production tables. This public page, JSON, CSV, and SQL route all render from TypeScript constants committed with the study.
Reproduce it
Download the committed artifacts for this study:
- Reproducible SQL - the aggregate generator embedded as a TypeScript constant.
- Download JSON / Download CSV - the committed FY2026 aggregate snapshot.
Limitations
- federal_action_obligation is net and includes de-obligations.
- The concentration denominator uses positive net recipient obligations, because negative recipient totals are de-obligation artifacts and do not represent dollars captured.
- The public.usaspending_award_transactions projection does not expose set_aside_type, so set-aside status is computed from public.procurement_awards and reported as a separate contract-only slice.
- The current procurement_sba_certifications table has no current rows; confirmed SBA-certified matches are therefore unavailable in this snapshot, not evidence that no recipient is small.
- Recipient names are shown as published by USAspending.gov.
- The snapshot reports aggregate public award records and does not produce a person-level report, consumer report, or derived risk signal.
Sources
Main source: USAspending.gov Federal Award Transactions, published by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Bureau of the Fiscal Service. Fonteum production snapshot as of 2026-06-05. Set-aside status uses the separate public procurement awards table described above.
Source: USAspending.gov Federal Award Transactions, FY2026 current rows as of 2026-06-05. U.S. Government Works. Recipient names are shown as published by USAspending.
Re-check the source snapshot
This study is a committed snapshot. For Fonteum source snapshots that are part of the public attestation chain, you can re-hash the published bytes against the stored digest.
How to cite this
Fonteum (2026). Federal Award Concentration: Top 1% Capture 83.44% of FY2026 Positive Dollars. Derived from USAspending.gov Federal Award Transactions, FY2026 committed snapshot as of 2026-06-05. https://fonteum.com/gov/research/federal-award-concentration-2026
Canonical URL: https://fonteum.com/gov/research/federal-award-concentration-2026 · License: U.S. Government Works (public domain; 17 U.S.C. §105)
Related evidence
Frequently asked questions
How concentrated is federal award spending in FY2026?
In the current FY2026 USAspending award-transaction table, 93,265 recipients have positive net obligations. The top 10 capture 23.98% of positive dollars, the top 100 capture 59.15%, and the top 1% capture 83.44%. HHI is 101.73, but Gini is 0.97, showing a very unequal recipient distribution.
What does the HHI number mean here?
HHI is 10,000 times the sum of squared recipient shares, computed over positive net recipient obligations. The FY2026 all-recipient HHI is 101.73, which is low concentration by HHI thresholds. HHI can look low when there are many recipients even when the distribution is unequal, so the page also reports top-share buckets and Gini.
What does the Gini number mean here?
Gini is a Lorenz-style inequality coefficient over positive net recipient obligations. It ranges from 0 for equal distribution to 1 for maximum inequality. The FY2026 recipient-obligation Gini is 0.97 in this snapshot.
How much small-business set-aside money appears in the snapshot?
The full USAspending transaction table used for concentration does not expose set_aside_type, so set-aside status is computed from a separate contract-focused procurement_awards slice. In that slice, set-aside rows account for $224.2M, or 0.04% of dollars. SBA-certification match rows are unavailable in the current snapshot, so this is not a count of dollars ultimately reaching small firms.
Does this page label any recipient as risky or preferred?
No. Recipient names are public USAspending records and are shown only in a top-N table by obligation. The study reports aggregate counts and distributions; it does not score, rate, or infer quality, eligibility, compliance, or risk.
How can I reproduce the numbers?
Use the SQL linked on this page against public.usaspending_award_transactions for the main concentration calculations and public.procurement_awards for the set-aside slice. The page itself serves the committed TypeScript snapshot and does not run database queries at request time.