What's percentage of the U.S. population is on welfare?

Question

How does a person qualify to be on welfare and how long? What percentage of the U.S. budget goes to welfare?

Answer 1

About 5 million or about 1.6% of people receive cash benefits the majority of them children and 25% are covered by Medicaid.

Federal State and local governments combined spend about 5% of GDP on means tested welfare (for the poor), with over half going to medical care and less than 1/4 going to cash benefits. Total taxes are about 30% of GDP so about 1/6 or 16% of the Federal State and Local taxes you pay gos to welfare.