States With the Lowest Poverty Rates
Nationally, 12.4% of Americans live below the federal poverty line. New Hampshire posts the country's lowest state poverty rate at 7.2%, while in Mississippi the rate reaches 19.1% — roughly one resident in 5. The table ranks every state from lowest to highest poverty.
10 Lowest Poverty Rates
The states with the least poverty — New Hampshire and Utah lead the list — are not always the ones with the highest incomes. What they share instead is a combination of moderate living costs, high labor-force participation, and comparatively even income distributions. Deep poverty concentrates in the rural South, where Mississippi anchors the bottom of the table at 19.1%.
Poverty is measured against a single national income threshold, so it understates hardship in expensive states and overstates it in cheap ones — a family just above the line in a high-cost coastal metro may be worse off in practice than one just below it elsewhere. Read this table alongside the median income ranking and the affordability ranking for a fuller picture of living standards.
Full Rankings
| # | State | Poverty Rate | Median Income | Unemployment | Bachelor's+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Hampshire | 7.2% | $95,628 | 3.4% | 39.8% |
| 2 | Utah | 8.6% | $91,750 | 3.4% | 36.9% |
| 3 | Minnesota | 9.2% | $87,556 | 3.9% | 38.8% |
| 4 | Maryland | 9.3% | $101,652 | 4.9% | 42.7% |
| 5 | Colorado | 9.4% | $92,470 | 4.5% | 44.7% |
| 6 | New Jersey | 9.8% | $101,050 | 6.2% | 42.9% |
| 7 | Washington | 9.9% | $94,952 | 5.0% | 38.8% |
| 8 | Virginia | 9.9% | $90,974 | 4.3% | 41.5% |
| 9 | Hawaii | 10.0% | $98,317 | 5.0% | 35.5% |
| 10 | Massachusetts | 10.0% | $101,341 | 5.1% | 46.6% |
| 11 | Connecticut | 10.0% | $93,760 | 5.7% | 41.9% |
| 12 | Alaska | 10.2% | $89,336 | 5.8% | 31.2% |
| 13 | Vermont | 10.3% | $78,024 | 3.7% | 42.6% |
| 14 | Nebraska | 10.3% | $74,985 | 3.0% | 34.1% |
| 15 | North Dakota | 10.6% | $75,949 | 2.8% | 32.3% |
| 16 | Wisconsin | 10.6% | $75,670 | 3.3% | 32.8% |
| 17 | Idaho | 10.6% | $74,636 | 3.7% | 31.2% |
| 18 | Wyoming | 10.7% | $74,815 | 3.7% | 29.9% |
| 19 | Delaware | 10.7% | $82,855 | 5.1% | 35.3% |
| 20 | Maine | 10.8% | $71,773 | 3.9% | 35.3% |
| 21 | Rhode Island | 10.9% | $86,372 | 5.7% | 37.3% |
| 22 | Iowa | 11.0% | $73,147 | 3.6% | 30.9% |
| 23 | Kansas | 11.5% | $72,639 | 3.9% | 35.2% |
| 24 | Illinois | 11.7% | $81,702 | 5.8% | 37.2% |
| 25 | Pennsylvania | 11.8% | $76,081 | 5.3% | 34.5% |
| 26 | Oregon | 11.9% | $80,426 | 5.4% | 36.2% |
| 27 | California | 12.0% | $96,334 | 6.4% | 36.5% |
| 28 | South Dakota | 12.0% | $72,421 | 3.0% | 31.1% |
| 29 | Montana | 12.0% | $69,922 | 3.8% | 34.5% |
| 30 | Indiana | 12.2% | $70,051 | 4.3% | 28.8% |
| 31 | Nevada | 12.6% | $75,561 | 6.8% | 27.4% |
| 32 | Missouri | 12.6% | $68,920 | 4.1% | 31.9% |
| 33 | Florida | 12.6% | $71,711 | 4.8% | 33.2% |
| 34 | Arizona | 12.8% | $76,872 | 5.2% | 32.6% |
| 35 | Michigan | 13.1% | $71,149 | 5.8% | 31.8% |
| 36 | North Carolina | 13.2% | $69,904 | 4.8% | 34.7% |
| 37 | Ohio | 13.2% | $69,680 | 4.9% | 30.9% |
| 38 | Georgia | 13.5% | $74,664 | 5.1% | 34.2% |
| 39 | New York | 13.7% | $84,578 | 6.2% | 39.6% |
| 40 | Tennessee | 13.8% | $67,097 | 4.7% | 30.4% |
| 41 | Texas | 13.8% | $76,292 | 5.1% | 33.1% |
| 42 | South Carolina | 14.2% | $66,818 | 5.0% | 31.5% |
| 43 | District of Columbia | 14.5% | $106,287 | 6.5% | 63.6% |
| 44 | Oklahoma | 15.3% | $63,603 | 4.9% | 27.8% |
| 45 | Alabama | 15.6% | $62,027 | 4.8% | 27.8% |
| 46 | Arkansas | 16.0% | $58,773 | 5.1% | 25.1% |
| 47 | Kentucky | 16.1% | $62,417 | 4.8% | 27.0% |
| 48 | West Virginia | 16.6% | $57,917 | 5.7% | 23.3% |
| 49 | New Mexico | 18.1% | $62,125 | 6.0% | 30.2% |
| 50 | Louisiana | 18.9% | $60,023 | 6.3% | 26.6% |
| 51 | Mississippi | 19.1% | $54,915 | 6.0% | 24.2% |
The District of Columbia is included for comparison, although it is not a state.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (ACS) 5-Year Estimates.
About This Ranking
All figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) 5-Year Estimates, the Bureau's most reliable dataset for state and local statistics. Because estimates pool five years of survey responses, they describe a recent period rather than a single moment, and small differences between closely ranked entries may fall within the survey's margin of error. Learn more about the data on our methodology page or at data.census.gov.
More National Rankings
Frequently Asked Questions
What state has the lowest poverty rate?
New Hampshire has the lowest poverty rate in the US at 7.2%, followed by Utah at 8.6%.
What state has the highest poverty rate?
Mississippi has the highest state poverty rate at 19.1%, well above the national rate of 12.4%.
What is the poverty rate in the US?
12.4% of Americans live below the federal poverty line according to the ACS 5-Year Estimates. The threshold varies by household size and is the same in every state regardless of local living costs.