List of states in the United States by poverty rate

State of poverty rate (2014)

Poverty Rate by County (2014)

The following list sorts the 50 states of the United States and the capital district of Washington, DC according to their poverty rate . This is a year through surveys in the American Community Survey identified , that of the United States Census Bureau is performed. The Census Bureau uses a number of income thresholds, which vary based on family size and composition, to determine who is living in poverty. When a family's total income is below a certain threshold, each member of that family is considered to be living in poverty. For a family of five, the poverty line in 2017 was an income below 29,986 US dollars before taxes .

The poverty rate in the United States varies significantly depending on geographic location. For example, states in the south of the USA have higher poverty rates than the states in the north and northeast . Other factors that play a role are ethnicity: in 2017, 8.7% of white Americans and 10% of Asian Americans lived below the poverty line, while the rate for Hispanics was 18.3%. The highest rate was found among African Americans , of whom 21.2% lived in poverty. The national average is 12.3%, which makes 39.7 million Americans poor. The long-term trend in the development of poverty in the USA shows a clear increase in the rate in the wake of the Great Recession from 2008. A development that peaked in 2012, the poverty rate has since declined again.

List of states

Development of the poverty rate in the 50 states and Washington DC from 2008 to 2017. When comparing the poverty rates, it should be borne in mind that the poverty line is identical everywhere and therefore local differences in the cost of living are not taken into account.

Rank (2017)	State	Poverty rate (2008)	Poverty rate (2012)	Poverty rate (2017)
1	Mississippi	19.0%	24.2%	19.8%
2	Louisiana	14.8%	19.9%	19.7%
2	New Mexico	14.7%	20.8%	19.7%
4th	West Virginia	13.1%	17.8%	19.1%
5	Kentucky	14.4%	19.4%	17.2%
6th	Alabama	13.1%	19.0%	16.9%
...	District of Columbia	15.4%	18.2%	16.6%
7th	Arkansas	14.6%	19.8%	16.4%
8th	Oklahoma	13.2%	17.2%	15.8%
9	South carolina	13.0%	18.3%	15.4%
10	Tennessee	12.9%	17.9%	15.0%
11	Arizona	12.6%	18.7%	14.9%
11	Georgia	12.4%	19.2%	14.9%
13	North Carolina	12.0%	18.0%	14.7%
13	Texas	14.1%	17.9%	14.7%
15th	Michigan	11.5%	17.4%	14.2%
16	new York	11.1%	15.9%	14.1%
17th	Florida	10.7%	17.1%	14.0%
17th	Ohio	10.5%	16.3%	14.0%
19th	Delaware	7.6%	12.0%	13.6%
20th	Indiana	10.6%	15.6%	13.5%
21st	Missouri	10.6%	16.2%	13.4%
22nd	California	11.2%	17.0%	13.3%
23	Oregon	10.5%	17.2%	13.2%
24	Nevada	9.0%	16.4%	13.0%
24	South Dakota	9.7%	13.4%	13.0%
26th	Idaho	9.9%	15.9%	12.8%
27	Illinois	10.0%	14.7%	12.6%
28	Montana	11.5%	15.5%	12.5%
28	Pennsylvania	9.2%	13.7%	12.5%
30th	Kansas	8.4%	14.0%	11.9%
31	Rhode Island	8.3%	13.7%	11.6%
32	Vermont	6.5%	11.8%	11.3%
32	Wisconsin	7.3%	13.2%	11.3%
32	Wyoming	6.1%	12.6%	11.3%
35	Alaska	6.1%	10.1%	11.1%
35	Maine	8.7%	14.7%	11.1%
37	Washington	8.4%	13.5%	11.0%
38	Nebraska	7.6%	13.0%	10.8%
39	Iowa	7.9%	12.7%	10.7%
40	Virginia	7.9%	11.7%	10.6%
41	Massachusetts	7.0%	11.9%	10.5%
42	Colorado	9.0%	13.7%	10.3%
42	North Dakota	8.6%	11.2%	10.3%
44	New Jersey	6.7%	10.8%	10.0%
45	Utah	6.9%	12.8%	9.7%
46	Connecticut	7.0%	10.7%	9.6%
47	Minnesota	6.5%	11.4%	9.5%
47	Hawaii	5.8%	11.6%	9.5%
49	Maryland	5.7%	10.3%	9.3%
50	New Hampshire	4.9%	10.0%	7.7%
	average	10.1%	15.2%	13.1%

See also

Commons : Maps of the states  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

• List of states in the United States
• List of states in the United States by population
• List of states in the United States by area
• List of states in the United States by fertility rate
• List of states in the United States by Human Development Index

Individual evidence

1. ^ Jeff Desjardins: Visualizing the Poverty Rate of Each US State. November 25, 2018. Retrieved March 20, 2019 (American English). 
2. ^ Poverty in the United States in 2017: In Brief. Retrieved March 23, 2019 .