Updated April 2026 · FY2024 USAspending.gov data
Virginia Federal Spending
VA · Rank #2 of 51
Virginia is one of the dominant destinations for federal contract dollars. Federal agencies obligated $52.1B to recipients in Virginia in the most recent fiscal year, capturing roughly 9.8% of all U.S. federal contract spending across 296 active contractors.
Why Virginia Ranks Where It Does
Mega-tier states like Virginia typically host either a major military presence (large bases, naval shipyards, or test ranges), a federal headquarters cluster (intelligence, energy, NASA), or both. Department of Defense dominates the local agency mix, which is consistent with that pattern. State-level totals at this scale usually reflect long-term federal infrastructure investments rather than year-to-year procurement choices.
For broader context, see the federal spending by state breakdown, which ranks every state and DC against this same dataset, or look at spending by industry to see which categories dominate nationally.
Top Contractors in Virginia
| Rank | Contractor | Obligations |
|---|---|---|
| #1 | The Boeing Company | $3.4B |
| #2 | Raytheon Company | $3.1B |
| #3 | Huntington Ingalls Incorporated | $3.0B |
| #4 | Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. | $2.8B |
| #5 | Science Applications International Corporation | $1.8B |
| #6 | Accenture Federal Services LLC | $1.3B |
| #7 | Leidos, Inc. | $1.2B |
| #8 | Optum Public Sector Solutions, Inc. | $594.6M |
| #9 | Bae Systems Technology Solutions & Services Inc. | $576.4M |
| #10 | Lockheed Martin Corporation | $496.7M |
Virginia's federal-contracting base is broad. The Boeing Company is the largest single recipient at $3.4B (about 6.6% of state total), but no contractor dominates — the state's spending is spread across many recipients, which makes the total more resilient to any one contract decision.
What the Federal Government Buys in Virginia
The largest spending category in Virginia is Defense & Weapons at $18.2B. That category mix tells you what the federal government is buying from Virginia contractors — services, manufactured goods, research, or construction. The Federal Procurement Data System uses the Product and Service Code (PSC) hierarchy to tag every award; the breakdown shown on this page rolls those PSCs into the major categories.
How These Numbers Are Calculated
Every total on this page is computed from the USAspending.gov award dataset, filtered to recipients with a primary place of performance in Virginia. Recipient identity is reconciled to the SAM.gov Unique Entity ID, which ties subsidiaries that file separately to a single parent record where the federal data supports it. Industry rollups follow the Product and Service Code hierarchy maintained by the Federal Procurement Data System. Read the full methodology.
Frequently Asked Questions About Virginia Federal Spending
How much federal contract spending does Virginia receive?
Virginia received $52,110,650,469 in federal contract obligations in the most recent fiscal year (FY2024), based on USAspending.gov data. That ranks Virginia #2 of 51 states (and DC) for federal contract spending.
Who is the biggest federal contractor in Virginia?
The Boeing Company is the largest federal contractor based in Virginia, with $3.4B in obligations. The full top-contractor list is shown above; click any name to open that contractor's profile, including all agencies, categories, and individual awards.
Which federal agencies spend the most in Virginia?
Department of Defense is the dominant federal customer in Virginia at $28.7B, followed by Department of Health and Human Services. The agency panel shows the full mix; large states usually show several agencies, while smaller-spending states tend to be dominated by one.
What does the federal government buy in Virginia?
The biggest spending category in Virginia is Defense & Weapons at $18.2B. Categories follow the PSC hierarchy from the Federal Procurement Data System and span services, products, research, and construction.
Where does this data come from?
Every figure is sourced from USAspending.gov, the official federal spending database mandated by the DATA Act. Recipient identity is reconciled to SAM.gov Unique Entity ID registrations. Data is public domain and refreshes whenever USAspending.gov publishes a new release.
Source: U.S. federal government, USAspending.gov & SAM.gov. Data is public domain. Cite as: "TaxDollarData, Virginia federal spending, FY2024. Data: USAspending.gov."
Last updated 2026-04-09 · figures represent federal obligations for FY2024.
For this entity, the underlying data on this page comes from USASpending.gov federal awards data. The breakdown above is the federal record; the paragraphs below add the per-entity context that makes the headline numbers usable for a real decision rather than just a data lookup.
Every number on this page links back to USASpending.gov federal awards data; the methodology page describes the inputs, refresh cadence, and known limitations of the underlying data product.
Practical use of this page is in combination with the comparison and ranking pages elsewhere on the site, which surface the same data for this entity’s peers within U.S. federal contracts, grants, and awards. A single-entity reading without peer context can be misleading when an entity is an outlier on one axis but typical on another.