Children 1-4 years old account for just over half of WIC participants

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, commonly known as the WIC program, provides low-income women, infants, and children younger than 5 who are at nutritional risk, with specific types of supplemental foods, along with nutrition education and health care referrals. As USDA’s third-largest food and nutrition assistance program, WIC served 8.7 million participants per month in fiscal 2013, and Federal expenditures for the program were nearly $6.5 billion. In April 2012, 53 percent of WIC participants were children ages 1-4 years, a small increase from their 50-percent share in the early 1990s. Women and infants each made up a little less than a quarter of WIC participants. This chart appears in the WIC Program topic page on ERS’s website, updated July 10, 2014.

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