Each year, the National Association of State Student Grant and Aid Programs completes a survey regarding state-funded expenditures for postsecondary student financial aid. This report, the 47th annual survey, represents data from academic year 2015-16, offering data regarding state-funded expenditures for student financial aid and illustrating the extent of efforts made by the states to assist postsecondary students. Highlights include: (1) In the 2015-16 academic year, the states awarded about $12.5 billion in total state funded student financial aid, an increase of less than 1 percent in nominal terms and almost level in constant dollar terms from the $12.4 billion in aid awarded in 2014-15; (2) The majority of state aid (86 percent) remains in the form of grants. In 2015-16, more than 4.1 million grant awards were made representing about $10.7 billion in need and nonneed-based grant aid. This represents an increase of about 2.2 percent from the $10.5 billion in grants awarded in 2014-15. Of the grant money awarded in 2015-16, 76 percent was need-based and 24 percent was nonneed-based, about the same as last year; (3) Funding for undergraduate need-based grant aid increased nationwide from about $7.8 billion in 2014-15 to about $8 billion in 2015-16, an increase of about 1.9 percent in nominal terms; (4) Eight states (California, New York, Texas, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Washington, Illinois, and North Carolina) collectively awarded about $5.5 billion in undergraduate need-based grant aid, accounting for about 70 percent of all aid of this type; and (5) States provided about $1.7 billion in nongrant student aid, including loans, loan assumptions, conditional grants, work-study, and tuition waivers, a drop from last year. Loans and tuition waivers accounted for 72 percent of nongrant funds awarded. Most states reported state-funded undergraduate programs with a need component, however, two states (Georgia and New Hampshire) reported no need based aid programs. Twenty-six states identified undergraduate programs which made awards based only on merit. Exclusively need-based aid constituted 46.1 percent of all aid to undergraduates, exclusively merit-based aid accounted for 17.6 percent, with the rest, 36.3 percent, accounted for by other programs and by programs with both need and merit components. The amount of undergraduate aid awarded in 2015-16 through programs with a merit component increased to about $4.5 billion. This compares to $5.3 billion awarded to undergraduates through programs based only on need.