{"chart":{"slug":"poverty-rate-by-state","title":"What share of people live in poverty in each state?","takeaway":"In the Census Bureau's five-year survey ending in 2024, 12.5% of people in the U.S. lived below the official poverty line. Louisiana (18.9%) and Mississippi (18.9%) had the highest rates, and New Hampshire the lowest, 7.2%. The official poverty line is the same across the country, so it doesn't reflect higher living costs in some states.","topic":"Income and poverty","chart_type":"bar","ranking":true,"x_label":"State","y_label":"Percent of people below the poverty line","unit":"percent","points_count":52,"source":{"name":"U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates","url":"https://www.census.gov/data/developers/data-sets/acs-5year.html"},"license":{"name":"Public domain (U.S. government work). This product uses the Census Bureau Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau.","url":"https://www.census.gov/data/developers/about/terms-of-service.html"},"data_as_of":"2024-12-31","updated_at":"2026-10-17T18:50:41.561Z","url":"https://chart.ly/charts/poverty-rate-by-state","api_url":"https://chart.ly/api/v1/charts/poverty-rate-by-state","csv_url":"https://chart.ly/charts/poverty-rate-by-state/data.csv","image_url":"https://chart.ly/charts/poverty-rate-by-state/image.png","embed_url":"https://chart.ly/charts/poverty-rate-by-state/embed","credit":"U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, via Chartly (https://chart.ly/charts/poverty-rate-by-state)","credit_html":"U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, via \u003ca href=\"https://chart.ly/charts/poverty-rate-by-state\"\u003eChartly\u003c/a\u003e","average_label":"United States","zero_axis":true,"data":[{"label":"Louisiana","value":18.9,"margin":0.3},{"label":"Mississippi","value":18.9,"margin":0.3},{"label":"New Mexico","value":17.8,"margin":0.4},{"label":"West Virginia","value":16.7,"margin":0.4},{"label":"Kentucky","value":16.1,"margin":0.3},{"label":"Arkansas","value":16,"margin":0.2},{"label":"Alabama","value":15.6,"margin":0.2},{"label":"District of Columbia","value":15.4,"margin":0.7},{"label":"Oklahoma","value":15.3,"margin":0.2},{"label":"South Carolina","value":14.1,"margin":0.2},{"label":"New York","value":14,"margin":0.2},{"label":"Tennessee","value":13.8,"margin":0.2},{"label":"Texas","value":13.8,"margin":0.1},{"label":"Georgia","value":13.4,"margin":0.2},{"label":"Ohio","value":13.3,"margin":0.2},{"label":"Michigan","value":13.2,"margin":0.2},{"label":"North Carolina","value":13,"margin":0.2},{"label":"Florida","value":12.6,"margin":0.1},{"label":"Missouri","value":12.6,"margin":0.2},{"label":"Arizona","value":12.5,"margin":0.2},{"label":"United States","value":12.5,"margin":0.1},{"label":"Nevada","value":12.4,"margin":0.3},{"label":"Indiana","value":12.3,"margin":0.2},{"label":"California","value":12,"margin":0.1},{"label":"Oregon","value":11.9,"margin":0.2},{"label":"South Dakota","value":11.9,"margin":0.4},{"label":"Illinois","value":11.8,"margin":0.1},{"label":"Pennsylvania","value":11.7,"margin":0.1},{"label":"Montana","value":11.5,"margin":0.3},{"label":"Kansas","value":11.3,"margin":0.2},{"label":"Rhode Island","value":11.2,"margin":0.4},{"label":"Iowa","value":11.1,"margin":0.2},{"label":"North Dakota","value":10.8,"margin":0.4},{"label":"Maine","value":10.7,"margin":0.3},{"label":"Idaho","value":10.6,"margin":0.3},{"label":"Nebraska","value":10.6,"margin":0.3},{"label":"Wisconsin","value":10.6,"margin":0.1},{"label":"Wyoming","value":10.5,"margin":0.6},{"label":"Delaware","value":10.4,"margin":0.4},{"label":"Alaska","value":10.1,"margin":0.4},{"label":"Vermont","value":10.1,"margin":0.4},{"label":"Connecticut","value":10,"margin":0.2},{"label":"Hawaii","value":10,"margin":0.3},{"label":"Massachusetts","value":10,"margin":0.1},{"label":"Virginia","value":9.9,"margin":0.2},{"label":"Washington","value":9.9,"margin":0.2},{"label":"New Jersey","value":9.7,"margin":0.2},{"label":"Colorado","value":9.4,"margin":0.2},{"label":"Maryland","value":9.4,"margin":0.2},{"label":"Minnesota","value":9.3,"margin":0.2},{"label":"Utah","value":8.5,"margin":0.2},{"label":"New Hampshire","value":7.2,"margin":0.3}],"annotations":[]},"docs":"https://chart.ly/developers","terms":"Free to use with credit: wherever you show or quote a chart's data, name Chartly with a link to that chart's url (each chart's credit line does both) and credit its source as its license asks.","credit":"U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, via Chartly (https://chart.ly/charts/poverty-rate-by-state)"}