But the combined 103,984,701 people in these four massive states still fell about 5,646,299 short of the 109,631,000 people on welfare. In the fourth quarter of 2008, when President Obama was elected, there were 96,197,000 people living in households taking benefits from one or more federal welfare programs. After four years, by the fourth quarter of 2012, that had grown by 13,434,000.