• In fiscal year (FY) 2018, the NEH received an appropriation of $152.8 million (in current dollars; as compared to $42.3 million requested by the administration). Adjusting for inflation, this was the largest appropriation for the agency since 2014, though it was well below its FY 1973–1995 appropriation levels (Indicator IV-01a). Please note that every funding amount mentioned below is inflation-adjusted unless otherwise specified (when amounts are not adjusted, a reference will be made to “current”
  dollars, as was done in the bullet above). For the unadjusted funding trend, i.e., the actual dollar amounts requested by the president and then appropriated by Congress, see the supporting table associated with Indicator IV-01a. For an explanation of why and how the Humanities Indicators adjusts for inflation when analyzing funding trends, click here.
• The period from the late 1960s to 1979 was one of substantial, virtually uninterrupted growth in NEH funding, with appropriations increasing from approximately $36 million to just under $425.4 million in inflation-adjusted value. Funding dropped substantially from this historic high the following year, however, and after several more years of marked reductions, appropriations were down 33% by 1983.
• Funding for the NEH plateaued from the early 1980s until 1996, when a major contraction—similar to that experienced by the agency in the early 1980s—occurred. The agency’s appropriation was cut 37%, from $268 million to $168 million in inflation-adjusted dollars. Funding remained in the vicinity of this reduced level through 2018. In recent years, the high watermark for funding was 2010, when the agency received an appropriation worth $194 million, when inflation is taken into account. But funding cuts and the effects of inflation brought the resources made available to the agency by Congress below $152 million (an almost 22% decrease) by 2013. The inflation adjusted-value of the most recent year of funding was 2.6% above the 2013 level, approximately $155.8 million.
• Throughout NEH’s history, the president’s budget request for the agency has tended to exceed the eventual appropriation received by the agency, with notable exceptions occurring during the 1980s (particularly in the early years of the Reagan administration), and again in 2018, when the appropriation from Congress was over three-and-a-half times the size of the administration’s request, which was intended to cover the costs associated with a planned shutdown of the agency. The 2019 budget proposal makes the same request (in current dollars).
• Although the absolute amounts of agency funding directed toward administrative purposes have been stable (adjusting for inflation) since the late 1970s, shrinking program budgets mean that from 1979 (the peak year of NEH funding) to 2018, the administrative share of the NEH budget increased from 7% to 18% of the total agency appropriation (Indicator IV-01b).
• As in the case of NEH funding dedicated to administrative purposes, the amount of funding directed by the agency to the state humanities councils—according to a congressionally mandated formula—has remained relatively stable over the years, ranging from a low of $36.6 million in 2007 to a high of $47.3 million in 2011 (in inflation-adjusted value), but the proportion of all NEH money distributed to these councils has trended substantially upward (Indicator IV-01c).1
• The councils’ share of agency funding increased from 17% in 1987 to 38% in 2018. The amount of discretionary funding available to the agency in FY 2018, $77.5 million is near the lowest level recorded over the time period (when inflation is taken into account).
• The first column of Indicator IV-01d lists the total amount of funding (in current dollars) directed by the NEH in FY 2017 to each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Each total represents the monies distributed by formula to the state’s humanities council plus the discretionary funding awards made to entities and individuals in that state.2 The second column of the table adjusts for population size, indicating the per capita funding level for each state. These per capita amounts ranged from less than 20 cents for the states of Florida, Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas to a high of $4.46 for the District of Columbia. The uncommonly large size of the District’s per capita amount was due, in part, to the fact that it included not only grants but also $1.1 million in program-related contracts awarded by the agency. Apart from this exceptional case, the states receiving the largest per capita allocations were Alaska, Delaware, North Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming (all between one and two dollars). Looking across all the jurisdictions examined here, the per capita funding level for FY 2017 was 39 cents (37 cents when the District of Columbia is excluded).

Endnotes

• 1The NEH provides each of the state humanities councils with an annual supporting grant through its Federal/State Partnership program, created in 1987. The funding formula directs $200,000 to every council, with the remainder of the appropriated monies being distributed in the following manner: 44% is allocated equally among councils that serve a population of 200,000 or more; 22% is allocated to all councils according to population; and 34% is allocated to councils according to the wishes of the NEH chairperson.
• 2The total does not equal the programmatic funding total given in Indicator IV-1b because the amount directed to the District of Columbia includes, in addition to grants, funding for all program contracts awarded by the agency. Such monies are considered part of the agency’s administrative budget.