What share of people live in poverty in each state?

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.

The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are in the table below.

Bars are sorted from highest to lowest and start at zero; each one's value is at its end. The dashed line is “United States”, for comparison. On a phone it opens on the top and bottom 10; tap “Show all” for the rest. These are survey estimates: the thin lines and the ± figures show each one's margin of error, and the true value is likely (90% confidence) within that range. Where ranges overlap, the difference may not be real.

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Key facts

Measure: Percent of people below the poverty line. Written from the data below.

  • Louisiana and Mississippi share the highest figure, 18.9%.
  • New Hampshire has the lowest figure, 7.2%, followed by Utah (8.5%) and Minnesota (9.3%).
  • United States: 12.5%. Of the 51 compared, 19 are above it, 31 below, and 1 the same.

This chart is one of the 50 in The U.S. in 50 charts, 2026, a yearly report of the key numbers on how the country is doing.

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Source and date

Source
U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates
License
Public domain (U.S. government work). This product uses the Census Bureau Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau.
Data as of
Published

Citation

Chartly. “What share of people live in poverty in each state?” Chart. Data: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, https://www.census.gov/data/developers/data-sets/acs-5year.html (data as of December 31, 2024). https://chart.ly/charts/poverty-rate-by-state (accessed November 5, 2026).

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The data

Download data (CSV)

The file has the numbers in this table, with the source, license and date. Please credit the source and Chartly. Developers can also get them as JSON (how).

State Percent of people below the poverty line Margin of error (±)
Louisiana 18.9 ±0.3
Mississippi 18.9 ±0.3
New Mexico 17.8 ±0.4
West Virginia 16.7 ±0.4
Kentucky 16.1 ±0.3
Arkansas 16 ±0.2
Alabama 15.6 ±0.2
District of Columbia 15.4 ±0.7
Oklahoma 15.3 ±0.2
South Carolina 14.1 ±0.2
New York 14 ±0.2
Tennessee 13.8 ±0.2
Texas 13.8 ±0.1
Georgia 13.4 ±0.2
Ohio 13.3 ±0.2
Michigan 13.2 ±0.2
North Carolina 13 ±0.2
Florida 12.6 ±0.1
Missouri 12.6 ±0.2
Arizona 12.5 ±0.2
United States 12.5 ±0.1
Nevada 12.4 ±0.3
Indiana 12.3 ±0.2
California 12 ±0.1
Oregon 11.9 ±0.2
South Dakota 11.9 ±0.4
Illinois 11.8 ±0.1
Pennsylvania 11.7 ±0.1
Montana 11.5 ±0.3
Kansas 11.3 ±0.2
Rhode Island 11.2 ±0.4
Iowa 11.1 ±0.2
North Dakota 10.8 ±0.4
Maine 10.7 ±0.3
Idaho 10.6 ±0.3
Nebraska 10.6 ±0.3
Wisconsin 10.6 ±0.1
Wyoming 10.5 ±0.6
Delaware 10.4 ±0.4
Alaska 10.1 ±0.4
Vermont 10.1 ±0.4
Connecticut 10 ±0.2
Hawaii 10 ±0.3
Massachusetts 10 ±0.1
Virginia 9.9 ±0.2
Washington 9.9 ±0.2
New Jersey 9.7 ±0.2
Colorado 9.4 ±0.2
Maryland 9.4 ±0.2
Minnesota 9.3 ±0.2
Utah 8.5 ±0.2
New Hampshire 7.2 ±0.3

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