Methodology

To determine the states where the most people work for the government, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. States were ranked based on the size of the government workforce as a percentage of total employment in 2020. Data on employment by sector for each state in 2010 and 2020 came from the BLS Current Employment Statistics program. Preliminary data on direct state and local government expenditure in 2019 came from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances and was adjusted for population using data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. Data on total area by state used to calculate population density also came from the Census Bureau.