Top 10 US States by Total Section 8 Voucher Allocation
PlainVoucher ranks US states by total administered Section 8 voucher units across all in-state PHAs.
Research period:
Research question
Across the 51 state-and-DC jurisdictions, which states carry the largest total Section 8 voucher portfolios, and how does state-level allocation interact with PHA count, urban-core population concentration, and HUD regional funding patterns?
Methodology
This ranking is generated automatically from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's published dataset and reflects the most recently reported figures for each entity. The page updates whenever we refresh our copy of the source data, so the numbers always match the latest release we have ingested.
Coverage and exclusions: entities with no reported value for this metric are left out of the ranking rather than shown as zero, since a missing figure is not the same as an actual zero. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development occasionally withholds a value for confidentiality, small-sample, or quality-control reasons, and those withheld entries are excluded the same way.
Data provenance: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development publishes this dataset on its own release schedule, and we pull each new release as it becomes publicly available. If a later release revises a prior figure, the revised number will appear here automatically the next time we refresh our copy, no part of this page is hand-edited.
Editorial governance: PlainVoucher maintains an editorial standards process covering how rankings are built, how outliers are handled, and how corrections are processed if an entity disputes a figure attributed to it. A named editor reviews this page before publication, shown in the byline above. Corrections and clarifications can be requested through the contact channels linked in the site footer.
Transparency: every number on this page traces back to a specific U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development source record, linked from the entity pages reachable from this ranking. See our methodology page for the full source list, update cadence, and how each figure is derived.
See the methodology page for the complete data-update process, source vintage, and field definitions.
Top 10 US States by Total Section 8 Voucher Allocation
Live data, updated automatically whenever we refresh our copy of the source
The ranked top 10
Every row below reflects the most recent data we have on file. Refresh the page after we update our copy of the source to see the latest values.
| # | State | Code | Section 8 units | PHAs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | CA | 369,815 | 88 |
| 2 | New York | NY | 297,342 | 129 |
| 3 | Texas | TX | 183,544 | 160 |
| 4 | Florida | FL | 131,552 | 76 |
| 5 | Illinois | IL | 112,085 | 66 |
| 6 | Ohio | OH | 107,047 | 74 |
| 7 | Pennsylvania | PA | 102,787 | 83 |
| 8 | Massachusetts | MA | 102,391 | 122 |
| 9 | New Jersey | NJ | 90,352 | 79 |
| 10 | North Carolina | NC | 73,360 | 65 |
Source: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, HUD PHA Contact List aggregated to state-level Section 8 allocation totals. Values reflect our most recent copy of the source data. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, HUD PHA Contact List aggregated to state-level Section 8 allocation totals. Values reflect our most recent copy of the source data.
Findings
Top entity in the ranking
The top-ranked record in this dataset is California, with a value of 369,815 on the Section 8 units column. The full top-10 set is rendered in the table above. Every value comes directly from the current dataset; no number is hardcoded into this page. When the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development publishes a revision, the ranking and the prose around it update automatically.
Distribution shape
The gap between the top-ranked record (369,815) and the 10th-ranked record (73,360) characterizes how concentrated the top of the distribution is. Where the top value is many multiples of the median value of the visible set, the population is highly concentrated, a small number of entities accumulate the bulk of the measured quantity. Where the top and bottom of the visible set are close together, the distribution is relatively flat across the top end. The full distribution beyond this top-10 cut is summarized in the aggregate context section below and explored in the linked entity profiles.
Aggregate context
Across the full population behind this ranking, here are the summary statistics: how many records exist in total, the sum of the ranking metric across all qualifying records, and the mean per-record value. The methodology page documents the exact filter applied (records with null or zero values on the ranking metric are excluded). This aggregate row is computed from the same dataset that powers the ranking above.
Source provenance
The records in this ranking originate from U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, specifically the HUD PHA Contact List aggregated to state-level Section 8 allocation totals. PlainVoucher ingests the source vintage published by the agency and republishes it here in a clear, browsable format. Every page reflects our most recent copy of the data, there is no stale cached export, and an update from the source agency propagates to this page within hours. The methodology page documents the source URL, the vintage date, and how each figure is derived.
Why this ranking matters
Rankings like this one let a reader scan a population quickly and identify outliers, concentrations, and patterns that warrant deeper investigation. The detail pages linked from each entity in the table above give the full per-entity context: time-series history where available, related metrics from adjacent tables, and links onward to the underlying source records. The methodology page explains how an entity earns inclusion in the dataset and how the ranking column is computed at the source.
What this analysis cannot tell us
State-level totals sum all Section 8 voucher units administered by PHAs whose mailing address is in that state, per the HUD PHA Contact List. Some PHAs operate jurisdictionally across multiple counties or service areas; the state assignment reflects the PHA's primary administrative location, not the geographic footprint of voucher placement. California, New York, Texas, Florida, and Illinois dominate the ranking because of large urban poverty populations combined with consolidated state-administered PHAs (notably in New York where the NYC Housing Authority alone administers more than 122,000 Section 8 units). State rankings change slowly because HUD's voucher allocation formula tracks population, low-income concentration, and rental-market characteristics that move only gradually year over year. Per-PHA averages divide state Section 8 units by state PHA count and are heavily influenced by whether the state operates few large consolidated agencies or many small county-level agencies. This ranking measures administered allocation, not voucher take-up rates, lease-up success, wait-list length, or unmet demand. Prospective voucher applicants should contact specific PHAs through the state-level browse to identify their relevant agency.
Secondary cut from the same source
Top 10 states by average Section 8 voucher allocation per PHA (10-PHA floor)
Sources
- HUD, Public Housing Agency (PHA) Contact List - https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/public_indian_housing/pha/contacts
- HUD Office of Public and Indian Housing, Annual voucher allocation reports - https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/public_indian_housing/programs/hcv