Zoom in and click on counties to interact with the map.

Sign up to receive email updates, action alerts, health tips, promotions to support our work and more from EWG and EWG Action Fund. You can opt-out at any time.

Share this page

Share Share

Share Share on Social Media

Map Info

Report: Federal Crop Insurance: A Lottery Where It's Hard Not to Win

On the map, click on counties for more information.

Average Rate of Return for Wheat 2001-2014
  • <= 0%
  • 1 - 100%
  • 101 - 200%
  • 201 - 300%
  • > 300%
Seeing: Wheat See Soybeans See Cotton See Corn

Notes:

A positive rate of return means a farmer got more in insurance payouts than he or she paid in premiums. A 100 percent rate of return means the farmer got a payout that was twice the size of the premium. A negative rate of return means the payout was smaller than the premium.

Rate of Return

The rate of return is the net return divided by the premium that the farmer paid for the insurance. Ex. If a farmer paid $10 for an insurance policy and their net return was $40, their rate of return would be 400%. Rate of return can also be zero or negative. If a farmer paid $10 for insurance and received $10 after filing a claim, their net return would be 0 and their rate of return would be 0%.

If a farmer paid $10 for insurance and received $0 because they did not file a claim, their net return would be -$10 and their rate of return would be -100%.

Net Return

The net return is the amount paid to a farmer through an insurance claim minus the premium that the farmer paid for the insurance. Ex. If a farmer paid $10 an acre for an insurance policy and received $50 an acre after filing a claim, the farmer’s net return would be $40. If a farmer paid $10 an acre for a policy and received $10 after filing a claim, their net return would be zero. If a farmer paid $10 an acre for a policy and received $0 because they did not file a claim, their net return would be -$10.

EWG only mapped counties if the number of crop insurance policies were greater than or equal to the national average between 2001 to 2014 (see below).

Corn: The average corn policy count per county was 203, which yielded 83% of all corn policies and 86% of all corn reported acres. (806 counties out of 2,479 counties or 33%)

Soybeans: The average soybean policy count per county was 225, which yielded 84% of all soybean policies and 84% of all soybean reported acres. (737 out of 2,104 counties or 35%)

Wheat: The average wheat policy count per county was 132, which yielded 81% of all wheat policies and 90% of all wheat reported acres. (614 out of 2,306 counties or 27%)

Cotton: The average cotton policy count per county was 114, which yielded 82% of all cotton policies and 85% of all cotton reported acres. (221 out of 741 counties or 30%)