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This paper presents preliminary estimates of the number of persons eligible for food stamps, on average throughout 1974, for each state and the nation. Previous estimates of the number of food-stamp eligibles have all been based on national household sample data that did not allow an adequate allocation of the resultant national figure among states. By contrast, this study begins with U.S. census household income data at the sta.te lev~l, and projects these data to current levels as the basis for determining the size of the 1974 eligible population in each state under current Food Stamp Program eligibility standards. In addition to gross household incomes, other factors that enter into the determination of food stamp eligibility are considered, but only on a nationa.l basis. These factors include an estimate of the assets-screen effect, the effect of underreporting in census income data, and an allowance for the effect of allowable deductions from gross income under Food Stamp Program criteria. It should be emphasized that the eligibility figures presented here should be interpreted as conservative, "baseline" figures, upon which final estimates for states can be developed. Preliminary work indicates that these final estimates will range from about 25 to 45 percent higher in each state than our Assumption A figures, which are derived solely from estimated distributions of current gross household incomes. A final version of this paper will be published in a forthcoming report by the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs, and in the Papers on Poverty and Law series of the Bureau of Social Science Research, Legal Action Support Project, Washington, D.C. (0 .PARTICIPATION RATES IN THE FOOD STAMP PROGRAM: ESTIMATED LEVELS, BY STATE Since 1968, the Food Stamp Program has been criticized for its inability to enroll even a majority of the persons who are eligible for food stamp benefits (U.S. Senate, 1973; Citizen.'s Board of Inquiry into Hunger and Malnutrition in the United States, 1968). Because eligibi1i ty is restricted to households with financial resources that indicate they are unable to purchase a minimally adequate diet wi thout food stamps, the welfare implications of this criticism are very serious. Nevertheless, there is empirical support for the charge. According to a staff study for the Subcommittee on Fiscal Policy of the Joint Economic Committee of Congress, 37 million persons in the nation were eligible for food stamps during March 1974 (U.S. Congress, 1974b, p. 5), while in that same month 13.6 million actually received the stamps (U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service, 1974). Hence in the first quarter of 1974, only about 35 percent of all eligible persons participated in the program. At that time, some 500 counties and other governmental units across the country still maintained the earlier Family Food Distribution Program (the "commodity" program) instead of food stamps, with nearly 2 million participants (U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service, Program Reporting Staff, monthly reports). The total of about 15.6 million combined-food-program participants still represented only a little more than 40 percent of the eligible population under Food Stamp Program criteria. If progress toward more adequate food stamp participation is to be monitored, data on participation rates for states are required,