US Counties With the Highest Poverty Rates
3,149 US counties ranked by poverty rate, from highest to lowest. First are Guánica Municipio, PR (64.7%), Adjuntas Municipio, PR (61.9%) and Vieques Municipio, PR (59.5%). The middle one of the 3,149 has 13.5%.
What this measures
The percentage of people whose family income is below the federal poverty line. The line depends on how many people are in the family and their ages. Source: Census ACS 5-year.
For most measures, a national ranking mostly sorts places by income and by how urban they are. Each county’s own page compares it with the 50 counties most like it instead, which is often the fairer view.
The 100 highest counties
Every state, highest first
Each state’s own published figure, not an average of its counties.
| Rank | State | % |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Puerto Rico | 41.6% |
| 2 | Mississippi | 19.1% |
| 3 | Louisiana | 18.9% |
| 4 | New Mexico | 18.1% |
| 5 | West Virginia | 16.6% |
| 6 | Kentucky | 16.1% |
| 7 | Arkansas | 16% |
| 8 | Alabama | 15.6% |
| 9 | Oklahoma | 15.3% |
| 10 | District of Columbia | 14.5% |
| 11 | South Carolina | 14.2% |
| 12 | Texas | 13.8% |
| 13 | Tennessee | 13.8% |
| 14 | New York | 13.7% |
| 15 | Georgia | 13.5% |
| 16 | Ohio | 13.2% |
| 17 | North Carolina | 13.2% |
| 18 | Michigan | 13.1% |
| 19 | Arizona | 12.8% |
| 20 | Missouri | 12.6% |
| 21 | Florida | 12.6% |
| 22 | Nevada | 12.6% |
| 23 | Indiana | 12.2% |
| 24 | Montana | 12% |
| 25 | South Dakota | 12% |
| 26 | California | 12% |
| 27 | Oregon | 11.9% |
| 28 | Pennsylvania | 11.8% |
| 29 | Illinois | 11.7% |
| 30 | Kansas | 11.5% |
| 31 | Iowa | 11% |
| 32 | Rhode Island | 10.9% |
| 33 | Maine | 10.8% |
| 34 | Wyoming | 10.7% |
| 35 | Delaware | 10.7% |
| 36 | Idaho | 10.6% |
| 37 | North Dakota | 10.6% |
| 38 | Wisconsin | 10.6% |
| 39 | Nebraska | 10.3% |
| 40 | Vermont | 10.3% |
| 41 | Alaska | 10.2% |
| 42 | Connecticut | 10% |
| 43 | Massachusetts | 9.98% |
| 44 | Hawaii | 9.97% |
| 45 | Virginia | 9.92% |
| 46 | Washington | 9.91% |
| 47 | New Jersey | 9.77% |
| 48 | Colorado | 9.38% |
| 49 | Maryland | 9.35% |
| 50 | Minnesota | 9.2% |
| 51 | Utah | 8.56% |
| 52 | New Hampshire | 7.16% |
More on poverty rate
- US Counties With the Lowest Poverty Rates
- Poverty rate by US county: map by year and what it goes with
A ranking describes places, not the people in them, and a high or low place does not by itself say why. All US rankings.