PROVIDENCE – More than 11 percent of Rhode Island residents were receiving food stamps in August, according to new government figures.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said 116,252 Rhode Island residents were participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in August. (Congress renamed the food stamp program last year.) That was up from 88,423 a year earlier.

Rhode Island tied with Florida and Pennsylvania for the fifth-highest monthly increases in food stamp enrollment, with participation rising 3.1 percent in all three states between July and August. Connecticut was highest with a 4.7 percent increase.

Nationwide, about 36.5 million people were enrolled in the food stamp program in August, the ninth consecutive month of record-high participation and an increase of 24 percent from a year earlier.

“The SNAP program is the most immediate stimulus in terms of its immediate impact,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told Bloomberg News in October. “Those dollars are spent right after receipt.”

To receive maximum benefits, gross income for a household of four generally must not exceed $2,389 a month. The average benefit in August was $132.99 for an individual and $293.07 for a family of four.

Almost half of all young Americans and 90 percent of black children will be on food stamps at some point during their childhoods, according to an analysis of 30 years of data published in this month’s edition of the journal Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

As a share of its population, Rhode Island’s food stamp enrollment ranks in the bottom half among states at 11.1 percent, based on the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2008 state population estimates. The state with the highest percentage of residents on food stamps was Missouri (18.7 percent), while Wyoming had the least (5.5 percent).

In New England, Rhode Island ranked in the middle, with larger shares of the population on food stamps in Maine (16.3 percent) and Vermont (12.9 percent) and smaller shares in Massachusetts (10.6 percent), Connecticut (8.2 percent) and New Hampshire (6.8 percent).

The 31.5 percent year-over-year increase in Rhode Island’s food stamp enrollment as of August was the 14th-biggest among states. Nevada saw the biggest jump at 53.1 percent.

The year-over-year increase in Rhode Island was the third-largest in New England, behind Vermont (up 39 percent) and New Hampshire (up 36.5 percent). Smaller increases were recorded in Massachusetts (up 27.8 percent), Connecticut (up 24 percent) and Maine (up 20.9 percent).

Additional information on the R.I. Department of Human Services Food Stamp Program is available at dhs.ri.gov and EatBetterToday.com.