Food-stamp enrollment in the United States is declining from record levels, in part because some states are ending benefits earlier than they have to.

Seven states, all led by Republicans, have decided this year to end waivers for some able-bodied recipients that were made available in the 2009 federal stimulus bill, even though the benefits are federally funded.

Enrollment in what’s formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is still nearly twice the level it was before the recession. But the most recent data, for May, showed 43.5 million people were receiving food stamps, down 9 percent from a 2012 peak and the fewest since 2010.

Much of the drop comes from an improving economy, but efforts to reduce enrollments among able-bodied adults are also accelerating the decline.

Under federal law, food stamp benefits are cut off after three months for adults under the age of 50 who don’t have dependents unless they find work or engage in a volunteer or job-training activity. The stimulus bill permitted states to waive that provision in areas with high unemployment.

Many states did, and the waivers pushed the percentage of so-called ‘‘ABAWDs’’ -- for ‘‘Able-Bodied Adults Without Dependents’’ -- to 10.3 percent of all food-stamp recipients in 2014 from 6.7 percent in 2007, according to the US Department of Agriculture, which runs the program. Ending them could push as many as a million people off aid nationwide, according the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a pro-food-stamp group in Washington.

High enrollments rankle Republicans, including presidential nominee Donald Trump, who cited that ‘‘43 million Americans are on food stamps’’ as a sign of economic failure in his acceptance address at the Republican National Convention last month. Democrats pledged to protect aid at their party gathering.

‘‘It’s a knee-jerk reaction to say that someone who’s getting a couple hundred bucks a month is lazy, so let’s throw them off,’’ said Tim Smeeding, a professor at the University of Wisconsin who studies poverty.

In the seven states -- Arkansas, Florida, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and New Jersey -- aid is ending sooner than the government requires. They join eight other states that had discontinued waivers in prior years because of economic conditions or state action: Delaware, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Oklahoma, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Texas. Other states are ending waivers only for certain regions.

Bloomberg News