If you seek a fellow Michigander on government assistance, look about you.

Between food stamps, welfare checks, health care and Medicaid, one in three Michigan residents is on some form of government assistance.

Michigan’s welfare state has only grown over the years. In fiscal year 2019, which includes the time when Gov. Gretchen Whitmer took office, the comparable number was 2,576,663 monthly recipients of government aid. That number rose to 3,339,705 in 2023.

That number is up 30% in just five years, and it represents 33% of Michigan’s population.

Not all the numbers have gone up. Disability enrollment shrank from an average of 3,023 monthly recipients in 2019 to 1,774 in 2023. The Family Independence Program shrank from an average of 36,584 monthly recipients in 2019 to 29,555 in 2023. Child development and care fell slightly, from 70,882 in 2019 to 69,641 in 2023.

But participation in all the other categories went up.

The number of Medicaid recipients in Michigan grew 21% since 2019, to an average of 2,166,550 per month up from 1,768,119 in 2019. This is by far the biggest cohort on government aid.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, states did not have to verify the eligibility of Medicaid recipients. That has changed. The Detroit News reported this month that 540,000 people were purged from Michigan’s Medicaid rolls just since the start of 2024. 

In recent years, Michiganders are suffering more and more calamities that require state aid.

State emergency relief checks went out to an average of 22,109 people per month in 2019, but the number has more than doubled since then, reaching 56,457 in 2023. This support covers a range of emergencies, including relocation funds, utility assistance, and burial funds. That’s a 155% increase.

Enrollment in the Healthy Michigan Plan (health insurance) has grown by 56% since 2019, increasing from 682,693 in 2019 to 1,070,811 in 2023.

About 17% more people are enrolled in food assistance than were in fiscal year 2019. That’s an average of 1,380,648 recipients per month 2023 compared to 1,180,070 in 2019.

One-third of Michiganders now depend on the state government for at least one form of financial assistance, according to the latest Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. The number has increased 30% since Gov. Gretchen Whitmer entered office.

Some 3.3 million people received benefits from at least one state program, according to the latest annual report from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. In the average month between October 2014 and September 2018, approximately 2.6 million people received benefits. Whitmer took office in January 2019. In the average month between October 2018 and September 2023, the comparable number was 2.9 million, an increase of 13%.

But the 3,339,705 average monthly recipients of government assistance in 2023 is 30% higher than the roughly 2.6 million served in 2019, when Whitmer took office.

State welfare assistance programs include the following: Medicaid, food stamps, State Emergency Relief, the Family Independence Program, State Disability Assistance and Child Development and Care.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services did not return a request for comment.

The average median household income in Michigan is currently $66,986, according to the U. S. Census Bureau. The average household income in the country was $74,580 in 2022. Michigan’s poverty rate is 13.4% while the U.S. average is slightly lower at 12.8%.