US Counties With the Lowest Poverty Rates
3,149 US counties ranked by poverty rate, from lowest to highest. First are Nantucket County, MA (3.03%), Douglas County, CO (3.23%) and Powhatan County, VA (3.26%). 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 lowest counties
Every state, lowest first
Each state’s own published figure, not an average of its counties.
| Rank | State | % |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Hampshire | 7.16% |
| 2 | Utah | 8.56% |
| 3 | Minnesota | 9.2% |
| 4 | Maryland | 9.35% |
| 5 | Colorado | 9.38% |
| 6 | New Jersey | 9.77% |
| 7 | Washington | 9.91% |
| 8 | Virginia | 9.92% |
| 9 | Hawaii | 9.97% |
| 10 | Massachusetts | 9.98% |
| 11 | Connecticut | 10% |
| 12 | Alaska | 10.2% |
| 13 | Vermont | 10.3% |
| 14 | Nebraska | 10.3% |
| 15 | Wisconsin | 10.6% |
| 16 | North Dakota | 10.6% |
| 17 | Idaho | 10.6% |
| 18 | Delaware | 10.7% |
| 19 | Wyoming | 10.7% |
| 20 | Maine | 10.8% |
| 21 | Rhode Island | 10.9% |
| 22 | Iowa | 11% |
| 23 | Kansas | 11.5% |
| 24 | Illinois | 11.7% |
| 25 | Pennsylvania | 11.8% |
| 26 | Oregon | 11.9% |
| 27 | California | 12% |
| 28 | South Dakota | 12% |
| 29 | Montana | 12% |
| 30 | Indiana | 12.2% |
| 31 | Nevada | 12.6% |
| 32 | Florida | 12.6% |
| 33 | Missouri | 12.6% |
| 34 | Arizona | 12.8% |
| 35 | Michigan | 13.1% |
| 36 | North Carolina | 13.2% |
| 37 | Ohio | 13.2% |
| 38 | Georgia | 13.5% |
| 39 | New York | 13.7% |
| 40 | Tennessee | 13.8% |
| 41 | Texas | 13.8% |
| 42 | South Carolina | 14.2% |
| 43 | District of Columbia | 14.5% |
| 44 | Oklahoma | 15.3% |
| 45 | Alabama | 15.6% |
| 46 | Arkansas | 16% |
| 47 | Kentucky | 16.1% |
| 48 | West Virginia | 16.6% |
| 49 | New Mexico | 18.1% |
| 50 | Louisiana | 18.9% |
| 51 | Mississippi | 19.1% |
| 52 | Puerto Rico | 41.6% |
More on poverty rate
- US Counties With the Highest 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.