New Poverty Data Shows Rate in This State Is Nearly 20% and Here’s the Rate in All 50

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Sep 16, 8:03AM EDT

Follow 24/7 Wall St. on Google

This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

New Poverty Data Shows Rate in This State Is Nearly 20% and Here’s the Rate in All 50 — © zodebala / Getty Images

The new U.S. Census data on poverty and household income was just released. While the official poverty rate was 10.5% last year, the level varies sharply from state to state. In Mississippi, the figure is 19.1%, or 82% higher than the national average. State figures are based on an average of three years, so the 82% increase is not entirely accurate. However, even with adjustments, the number is grim.

[in-text-ad]
The official poverty rate has been questioned, although that does not make the Mississippi number less troubling. The Census Bureau also issues a Supplementary Poverty Measure, which shows a national rate of 11.7%. The difference between 10.5% and 11.7% is programs that “lift” people above the poverty level. They are primarily tax credits and Social Security.

The poverty rate measurement for states averages three years (2017, 2018, 2019) to get a statistically stable set of numbers. Based on this measure, the national poverty rate is 11.5%. The Mississippi figure should be measured against that number. That puts the figure for the southern state 66% above the total. The widest contrast with any other state is that between Mississippi and New Hampshire, where the poverty rate is 5.6%.
[nativounit]

These are the official poverty rates for all 50 states and the District of Columbia, based on the 2017, 2018 and 2019 weighting measure.

Location	People in Poverty (thousands)	Rate
United States	37,316	11.5
Alabama	715	14.7
Alaska	84	11.8
Arizona	870	12.1
Arkansas	437	15.0
California	4,482	11.4
Colorado	516	9.1
Connecticut	338	9.7
Delaware	74	7.6
District of Columbia	96	1.1
Florida	2,725	12.9
Georgia	1,383	13.3
Hawaii	131	9.4
Idaho	177	10.0
Illinois	1,302	10.4
Indiana	738	11.2
Iowa	269	8.7
Kansas	297	10.4
Kentucky	629	14.2
Louisiana	869	19.1
Maine	152	11.4
Maryland	458	7.6
Massachusetts	629	9.2
Michigan	1,059	10.7
Minnesota	419	7.4
Mississippi	559	19.1
Missouri	667	11.1
Montana	106	10.1
Nebraska	193	10.2
Nevada	369	12.1
New Hampshire	76	5.6
New Jersey	24	8.2
New Mexico	353	17.2
New York	2,348	12.1
North Carolina	1,418	13.6
North Dakota	75	10.1
Ohio	1,423	12.4
Oklahoma	478	12.4
Oregon	412	9.8
Pennsylvania	1,321	10.5
Rhode Island	102	9.8
South Carolina	727	14.4
South Dakota	91	10.6
Tennessee	813	12.1
Texas	3,601	12.7
Utah	243	7.6
Vermont	55	1.1
Virginia	809	9.7
Washington	661	8.8
West Virginia	277	15.6
Wisconsin	506	8.7
Wyoming	59	10.5

[recirclink id=737621]
[wallst_email_signup]

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.