States most affected by government shutdowns

On January 19, 2018, the United States government shut down for three days when congressional leaders were unable to come to an agreement on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, federal spending, and immigration. For many Americans, the shutdown was a mere annoyance—one more thing for pundits to lament on cable news programs. It was hardly the first time this has happened, after all: the federal government has shut down in the face of a funding gap 18 times before. This time, the government shut down just before Christmas day, after a spending deal could not be reached Dec. 22. This is now the third government shutdown of 2018, and has extended into 2019.

For those outside of the White House, the shutdown forced their daily lives to grind to a halt. During a shutdown, members of the military stop receiving paychecks until the funding gap is resolved. A lack of staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention makes it difficult for people in need to get flu shots and other public health treatments. Taxpayers may not be able to get the help they need from the IRS, and federal loan applications for small businesses, rural communities, and prospective homeowners are frozen altogether.

To paint a clearer picture of how government shutdowns affect each state, Stacker referenced WalletHub data collected from the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, usaspending.gov, Fit Small Business, National Association of Realtors, National Park Service and the Kaiser Family Foundation. WalletHub calculated the effect of the government shutdown on six metrics: federal jobs as a share of total state unemployment, federal contract dollars per capita, the percentage of children under the Children's Health Insurance Program, small business lending, real estate as a percentage of the gross state product, and access to national parks. The weighted average of those scores reveals the overall impact of government shutdowns on each state; we've included the number of federal employees in each state as of September 2017 as additional context.

Read on to discover the states where government shutdowns have the biggest impact.