(CNSNews.com) - The number of beneficiaries on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps, has topped 46,000,000 for 39 straight months, according to data released by the Department of Agriculture (USDA).

In November 2014, the latest month reported, there were 46,271,508 Americans on food stamps. Food stamp recipients have exceeded 46 million since September 2011.

The 46,271,508 on food stamps in November was down from the 46,477,678 on food stamps in October – a decline of 206,170.

As of July, the national population was 318,857,056, the Census Bureau estimates. Thus, the 46,271,508 on food stamps equaled 14.5 percent of the population.

There were 22,699,759 households on food stamps in November, which also declined from the previous month of 22,774,201 in October.

As of September, according to the Census Bureau, there were 115,831,000 households in the country. Thus, the 22,699,759 households on food stamps in November equaled 19.6 percent of the nation’s households.

The 46,271,508 people on food stamps in the United States also exceeded the total populations of Columbia (46,245,297), Kenya (46,245,297), Ukraine (44,291,413) and Argentina (43,024,374).

That’s slightly fewer than the population of Spain (47,737,941).

Households on food stamps got an average benefit of $259.95 during the month, and total benefits for the month cost taxpayers $5,900,887,430.

In 1969, the average participation in the SNAP program stood at 2,878,000. In 2014, average participation grew to 46,536,000, an increase of 1516.96 percent.