Federal domestic spending increased a record 16 percent to $3.2 trillion in 2009, the Census Bureau reported yesterday, largely because of the huge economic-stimulus package enacted to rescue the sinking economy.

The rise in spending was the largest since the Census Bureau began compiling the data in 1983. Overall, the spending total was the equivalent of $10,548 for each person living in the United States.

The biggest chunk of funds went to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, entitlement programs that are projected to consume ever larger portions of the federal budget as the population ages.

The states with the largest per-capita federal spending were Alaska, which received $20,351 per person, Virginia at $19,734 and Hawaii at $19,001. The states with the lowest per-capita federal spending were Nevada at $7,148, Utah at $7,435 and Georgia at $8,538.

Salaries for federal employees accounted for $299.4 billion in federal spending, with 45.8 percent of that going to the Defense Department payroll.

Grants, meanwhile, accounted for nearly one-quarter, $744 billion, of federal spending. The majority of that amount, $414.9 billion, was funneled through the Department of Health and Human Services. Together, HHS, the Department of Education and the Department of Transportation accounted for 77.9 percent of federal grant spending in 2009.

Much of the increase in federal spending could be traced to the recession.

Total obligations for two major welfare programs - Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and food stamps - reached $68.4 billion in 2009, a 31.7 percent increase.

Also, the federal government spent $85.8 billion on unemployment compensation in 2009 amid an extension of benefits triggered by persistently high joblessness. That figure was more than double what the federal government spent on unemployment benefits in 2008.