WIC Program Overview

The Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Program is a federally funded health and nutrition program that provides assistance to pregnant and postpartum individuals, infants, and children up to age five. WIC supports California families by offering:

• Food benefits based on individual participants’ nutritional needs and risk assessment;
• Nutritional education and breastfeeding support;
• Healthcare referrals and other community services.

Participants must also meet income guidelines and other criteria. Currently, 84 WIC local agencies provide services monthly to approximately one million participants at 500 sites in local communities throughout the State. The food benefits can be used to purchase healthy supplemental foods from WIC authorized vendor stores throughout the State (about 3,700 in 2024). Certified WIC participants are individuals who have completed the eligibility and enrollment process and are approved to receive benefits and services. Participating WIC clients refer to certified individuals who are actively issued benefits during a specific reporting period.

Report File Overview

There are two reports providing detailed information about WIC participants by year and month in California, including:

Report 1: WIC Participants by County of Residence and by WIC Category

This report counts the number of certified WIC participants, participants issued benefits, and participants redeeming benefits (only for Food Instrument [FI] benefits) in each county in California by WIC Category for each year and month. Category in the report is defined as Breastfeeding, Child Aged 1-4, Infant, Non-Breastfeeding, and Prenatal. Statewide totals are included.

Report 2: WIC Participants by County of Residence and by Race/Ethnicity

This report counts the number of certified WIC participants (those who met eligibility criteria), participants issued food benefits, and participants redeeming benefits (only for FI benefits) in each county in California by race/ethnicity and for each year and month. Race/ethnicity in the report is defined as Hispanic, Non-Hispanic African American, Non-Hispanic Asian, Non-Hispanic White, and Non-Hispanic Other. Statewide totals are included. For definitions and coding structure for County of Residence, WIC Category, race/ethnicity; certified participants, issued participants, and redeemed participants please see the Data Dictionary file.

Note regarding transition to Electronic Benefit Transfer

Each report listed above is split into two files: 1) 2010-2018 data and 2) 2019 data onward. This is due to the transition to electronic benefit transfer in June 2019. Prior to June 2019, WIC issued paper food instruments (FIs {i.e., WIC checks}) to individual participants for purchasing supplemental, nutritious foods. Between June 2019 and March 2020, California WIC transitioned from the FI delivery system to a new Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) system. With the new system, each family’s WIC food benefits are loaded to its EBT account and accessed by its California WIC card, which works like a debit card. As a result of the change, the benefit redemptions (i.e., purchases) are no longer recorded at the individual level, but at the family level; which results in the 2019 and later data file not including a “Number of Redeemed Participants” column.

Note on small sample sizes

To ensure WIC participant anonymity, small cells are suppressed when the number of WIC participants is fewer than 11. The suppressed cells are annotated as “. “. Due to consistently small numbers, data for Alpine and Sierra counties are not shared, although they are included in the Statewide records. Statewide records are provided under the Category of “County of Residence”.