The McAllen-Edinburg-Mission metropolitan area in Texas was ranked first with 27.2 percent of its population living below the poverty level in 2023. Eagle Pass, Texas had the second-highest poverty rate, at 24.4 percent.

In 2021, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was the city with the highest poverty rate of the United States' most populated cities. In this statistic, the cities are sorted by poverty rate, not population. The most populated city in 2021 according to the source was New York city - which had a poverty rate of 18 percent.

In 2021, the city of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania had the highest family poverty rate of the 25 most populated cities in the United States. The city with the next highest poverty rate was Houston, Texas.

In 2023, Wildwood-The Villages metropolitan area in Florida was ranked first, with 39.3 percent of its population aged under 18 years living below the poverty level. McAllen-Edinburg-Mission metro area in Texas had the second-highest rate of child poverty in the nation.

In 2021, New York city had the highest number of people living below the poverty line, with 1.4 million people living in poverty. This is significantly higher than any of the other most populated cities.

In 2023, 17.9 percent of Black people living in the United States were living below the poverty line, compared to 7.7 percent of white people. That year, the total poverty rate in the U.S. across all races and ethnicities was 11.1 percent. Poverty in the United States Single people in the United States making less than 12,880 U.S. dollars a year and families of four making less than 26,500 U.S. dollars a year are considered to be below the poverty line. Women and children are more likely to suffer from poverty, due to women staying home more often than men to take care of children, and women suffering from the gender wage gap. Not only are women and children more likely to be affected, racial minorities are as well due to the discrimination they face. Poverty data Despite being one of the wealthiest nations in the world, the United States had the third highest poverty rate out of all OECD countries in 2019. However, the United States' poverty rate has been fluctuating since 1990, but has been decreasing since 2014. The average median household income in the U.S. has remained somewhat consistent since 1990, but has recently increased since 2014 until a slight decrease in 2020, potentially due to the pandemic. The state that had the highest number of people living below the poverty line in 2020 was California.

What is Social Vulnerability?Every community must prepare for and respond to hazardous events, whether a natural disaster like a tornado or a disease outbreak, or an anthropogenic event such as a harmful chemical spill. The degree to which a community exhibits certain social conditions, including high poverty, low percentage of vehicle access, or crowded households, among others, may affect that community’s ability to prevent human suffering and financial loss in the event of a disaster. These factors describe a community’s social vulnerability.What is the CDC/ATSDR Social Vulnerability Index?ATSDR’s Geospatial Research, Analysis, & Services Program (GRASP) created the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry Social Vulnerability Index (hereafter, CDC/ATSDR SVI or SVI) to help public health officials and emergency response planners identify and map the communities that will most likely need support before, during, and after a hazardous event.SVI indicates the relative vulnerability of every U.S. census tract. Census tracts are subdivisions of counties for which the Census collects statistical data. SVI ranks the tracts on 16 social factors, such as unemployment, racial and ethnic minority status, and disability status. Then, SVI further groups the factors into four related themes. Thus, each tract receives a ranking for each Census variable and for each of the four themes as well as an overall ranking.Below, text that describes “tract” methods also refers to county methods.How can the SVI help communities be better prepared for hazardous events?SVI provides specific socially and spatially relevant information to help public health officials and local planners better prepare communities to respond to emergency events such as severe weather, floods, disease outbreaks, or chemical exposure.SVI can be used to:Assess community need during emergency preparedness planning.Estimate the type and quantity of needed supplies such as food, water, medicine, and bedding.Decide the number of emergency personnel required to assist people.Identify areas in need of emergency shelters.Create a plan to evacuate people, accounting for those who have special needs, such as those without vehicles, the elderly, or people who do not speak English well.Identify communities that will need continued support to recover following an emergency or natural disaster.For more detailed methodology and attribute details, please review this document.

In 2021, New York city had the highest number of families living below the poverty line, at an estimated 272,461 families. New York city is also the most heavily populated city in the United States.

Abstract

The World Bank has launched a quick-deploying high-frequency phone-monitoring survey of households to generate near real-time insights on the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 on households which hence to be used to support evidence-based response to the crisis. At a moment when all conventional modes of data collection have had to be suspended, a phone-based rapid data collection/tracking tool can generate large payoffs by helping identify affected populations across the vast archipelago as the contagion spreads, identify with a high degree of granularity the mechanisms of socio-economic impact, identify gaps in public policy response as the Government responds, generating insight that could be useful in scaling up or redirecting resources as necessary as the affected population copes and eventually regains economic footing.

Analysis unit

Household-level; Individual-level: household primary breadwinners, respondent, student, primary caregivers, and under-5 years old kids

Sampling procedure

The sampling frame of the Indonesia high-frequency phone-based monitoring of socio-economic impacts of COVID-19 on households was the list of households enumerated in three recent World Bank surveys, namely Urban Survey (US), Rural Poverty Survey (RPS), and Digital Economy Household Survey (DEHS). The US was conducted in 2018 with 3,527 sampled households living in the urban areas of 10 cities and 2 districts in 6 provinces. The RPS was conducted in 2019 with the sample size of 2,404 households living in rural areas of 12 districts in 6 provinces. The DEHS was conducted in 2020 with 3,107 sampled households, of which 2,079 households lived in urban areas and 1,028 households lived in rural areas in 26 districts and 31 cities within 27 provinces. Overall, the sampled households drawn from the three surveys across 40 districts and 35 cities in 27 provinces (out of 34 provinces). For the final sampling frame, six survey areas of the DEHS which were overlapped with the survey areas in the UPS were dropped from the sampling frame. This was done in order to avoid potential bias later on when calculating the weights (detailed below). The UPS was chosen to be kept since it had much larger samples (2,016 households) than that of the DEHS (265 households). Three stages of sampling strategies were applied. For the first stage, districts (as primary sampling unit (PSU)) were selected based on probability proportional to size (PPS) systematic sampling in each stratum, with the probability of selection was proportional to the estimated number of households based on the National Household Survey of Socio-economic (SUSENAS) 2019 data. Prior to the selection, districts were sorted by provincial code.

In the second stage, villages (as secondary sampling unit (SSU)) were selected systematically in each district, with probability of selection was proportional to the estimated number of households based on the Village Potential Census (PODES) 2018 data. Prior to the selection, villages were sorted by sub-district code. In the third stage, the number of households was selected systematically in each selected village. Prior to the selection, all households were sorted by implicit stratification, that is gender and education level of the head of households. If the primary selected households could not be contacted or refused to participate in the survey, these households were replaced by households from the same area where the non-response households were located and with the same gender and level of education of households’ head, in order to maintain the same distribution and representativeness of sampled households as in the initial design.

In the Round 8 survey where we focused on early nutrition knowledge and early child development, we introduced an additional respondent who is the primary caregiver of under 5 years old in the household. We prioritized the mother as the target of caregiver respondents. In households with multiple caregivers, one is randomly selected. Furthermore, only the under 5 children who were taken care of by the selected respondent will be listed in the early child development module.

Mode of data collection

Computer Assisted Telephone Interview [cati]

Research instrument

The questionnaire in English is provided for download under the Documentation section.

Response rate

The HiFy survey was initially designed as a 5-round panel survey. By end of the fifth round, it is expected that the survey can maintain around 3,000 panel households. Based on the experience of phone-based, panel survey conducted previously in other study in Indonesia, the response rates were expected to be around 60 percent to 80 percent. However, learned from other similar surveys globally, response rates of phone-based survey, moreover phone-based panel survey, are generally below 50 percent. Meanwhile, in the case of the HiFy, information on some of households’ phone numbers was from about 2 years prior the survey with a potential risk that the targeted respondents might not be contactable through that provided numbers (already inactive or the targeted respondents had changed their phone numbers). With these considerations, the estimated response rate of the first survey was set at 60 percent, while the response rates of the following rounds were expected to be 80 percent. Having these assumptions and target, the first round of the survey was expected to target 5,100 households, with 8,500 households in the lists. The actual sample of households in the first round was 4,338 households or 85 percent of the 5,100 target households. However, the response rates in the following rounds are higher than expected, making the sampled households successfully interviewed in Round 2 were 4,119 (95% of Round 1 samples), and in Rounds 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 were 4,067 (94%), 3,953 (91%), 3,686 (85%), 3,471 (80%), 3,435 (79%), 3,383 (78%) respectively. The number of balanced panel households up to Rounds 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 are 3,981 (92%), 3,794 (87%), 3,601 (83%), 3,320 (77%), 3,116 (72%), and 2,856 (66%) respectively.

In 2023, about 14.2 percent of New York's population lived below the poverty line. This accounts for persons or families whose collective income in the preceding 12 months was below the national poverty level of the United States. The poverty rate of the United States can be found here.

Honduras was the country in Latin America with the highest share of population living on less than 3.20 U.S. dollars per day. The Central American nation had 26.4 percent of its population living on less than 3.20 U.S. dollars a day, while Colombia came second highest with 14 percent. On the other hand, Uruguay had only 0.8 percent of poverty headcount ratio, featured as the lowest share in the region.

When analyzing the ratio of homelessness to state population, New York, Vermont, and Oregon had the highest rates in 2023. However, Washington, D.C. had an estimated 73 homeless individuals per 10,000 people, which was significantly higher than any of the 50 states. Homeless people by race The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development performs homeless counts at the end of January each year, which includes people in both sheltered and unsheltered locations. The estimated number of homeless people increased to 653,104 in 2023 – the highest level since 2007. However, the true figure is likely to be much higher, as some individuals prefer to stay with family or friends - making it challenging to count the actual number of homeless people living in the country. In 2023, nearly half of the people experiencing homelessness were white, while the number of Black homeless people exceeded 243,000. How many veterans are homeless in America? The  number of homeless veterans in the United States has halved since 2010. The state of California, which is currently suffering a homeless crisis, accounted for the highest number of homeless veterans in 2022. There are many causes of homelessness among veterans of the U.S. military, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), substance abuse problems, and a lack of affordable housing.

The Nigerian states of Sokoto and Taraba had the largest percentage of people living below the poverty line as of 2019. The lowest poverty rates were recorded in the South and South-Western states. In Lagos, this figure equaled 4.5 percent, the lowest rate in Nigeria.

A large population in poverty

In Nigeria, an individual is considered poor when they have an availability of less than 137.4 thousand Nigerian Naira (roughly 334 U.S. dollars) per year. Similarly, a person having under 87.8 thousand Naira (about 213 U.S. dollars) in a year available for food was living below the poverty line according to Nigerian national standards. In total, 40.1 percent of the population in Nigeria lived in poverty.

Food insecurity on the rise

On average, 21.4 percent of the population in Nigeria experienced hunger between 2018 and 2020. People in severe food insecurity would go for entire days without food due to lack of money or other resources. Over the last years, the prevalence with severe food among Nigerians has been increasing, as the demand for food is rising together with a fast-growing population.

This graph shows the Percentage of households led by a female householder with no spouse present with own children under 18 years living in the household in the U.S. in 2021, by state. In 2021, about 4.24 percent of Californian households were single mother households with at least one child.

Additional information on single mother households and poverty in the United States

For most single mothers a constant battle persists between finding the time and energy to raise their children and the demands of working to supply an income to house and feed their families. The pressures of a single income and the high costs of childcare mean that the risk of poverty for these families is a tragic reality. Comparison of the overall United States poverty rate since 1990 with that of the poverty rate for families with a female householder shows that poverty is much more prevalent in the latter. In 2021, while the overall rate was at 11.6 percent, the rate of poverty for single mother families was 23 percent. Moreover, the degree of fluctuation tends to be lower for single female household families, suggesting the rate of poverty for these groups is less affected by economic conditions.

The sharp rise in the number of children living with a single mother or single father in the United States from 1970 to 2022 suggests more must be done to ensure that families in such situations are able to avoid poverty. Moreover, attention should also be placed on overall racial income inequality given the higher rate of poverty for Hispanic single mother families than their white or Asian counterparts.

In 2023, 9.7 percent of New Jersey's population lived below the poverty line. This was no change from the previous year, but remains a decrease from 2021, when 10.2 percent of New Jersey residents lived below the poverty line. The poverty rate of the United States can be accessed here.

In 2023, there were about 653,104 homeless people estimated to be living in the United States, the highest number of homeless people recorded within the provided time period. In comparison, the second-highest number of homeless people living in the U.S. within this time period was in 2007, at 647,258. How is homelessness calculated? Calculating homelessness is complicated for several different reasons. For one, it is challenging to determine how many people are homeless as there is no direct definition for homelessness. Additionally, it is difficult to try and find every single homeless person that exists. Sometimes they cannot be reached, leaving people unaccounted for. In the United States, the Department of Housing and Urban Development calculates the homeless population by counting the number of people on the streets and the number of people in homeless shelters on one night each year. According to this count, Los Angeles City and New York City are the cities with the most homeless people in the United States. Homelessness in the United States Between 2022 and 2023, New Hampshire saw the highest increase in the number of homeless people. However, California was the state with the highest number of homeless people, followed by New York and Florida. The vast amount of homelessness in California is a result of multiple factors, one of them being the extreme high cost of living, as well as opposition to mandatory mental health counseling and drug addiction. However, the District of Columbia had the highest estimated rate of homelessness per 10,000 people in 2023. This was followed by New York, Vermont, and Oregon.

The share of the population with at least one poverty condition or unmet need in the Peruvian capital of Lima reached its lowest during 2017 with 8.1 percent. In 2023, the share of residents of the metropolitan area was over nine percent.

In 2024, approximately 22.81 million people lived in the São Paulo metropolitan area, making it the biggest in Latin America and the Caribbean and the fifth most populated in the world. The homonymous state of São Paulo was also the most populous federal entity in the country. The second place for the region was Mexico City with 22.51 million inhabitants.

Brazil's cities

Brazil is home to two large metropolises, only counting the population within the city limits, São Paulo had approximately 12.4 million inhabitants, and Rio de Janeiro around 6.8 million inhabitants. It also contains a number of smaller, but well known cities such as Brasília, Salvador, Belo Horizonte and many others, which report between 2 and 3 million inhabitants each. As a result, the country's population is primarily urban, with nearly 85 percent of inhabitants living in cities.

Mexico City

Mexico City's metropolitan area ranks fifth in the ranking of most populated cities in the world. Founded over the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan in 1521 after the Spanish conquest as the capital of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, the city still stands as one of the most important in Latin America. Nevertheless, the preeminent economic, political, and cultural position of Mexico City has not prevented the metropolis from suffering the problems affecting the rest of the country, namely, inequality and violence. Only in 2021, the city registered a crime incidence of 45,336 reported cases for every 100,000 inhabitants and around 32 percent of the population lived under the poverty line.

In 2021, the birth rate in the United States was highest in families that had under 10,000 U.S. dollars in income per year, at 62.75 births per 1,000 women. As the income scale increases, the birth rate decreases, with families making 200,000 U.S. dollars or more per year having the second-lowest birth rate, at 47.57 births per 1,000 women. Income and the birth rate Income and high birth rates are strongly linked, not just in the United States, but around the world. Women in lower income brackets tend to have higher birth rates across the board. There are many factors at play in birth rates, such as the education level of the mother, ethnicity of the mother, and even where someone lives. The fertility rate in the United States The fertility rate in the United States has declined in recent years, and it seems that more and more women are waiting longer to begin having children. Studies have shown that the average age of the mother at the birth of their first child in the United States was 27.4 years old, although this figure varies for different ethnic origins.

Alaska had the highest male to female ratio in the United States in 2020, with 109.2 men for every 100 women. The male to female ration was lowest in the District of Columbia, with 90.3 men for every 100 women.

The final frontier

Alaska, which was purchased from the Russian Empire in 1867, is the largest state in the U.S. and one of the newest states, having been admitted to the U.S. in 1959. Although oil production dominates the economy, Alaska has a very high poverty rate and consistently has the highest unemployment rate in the country.

It’s a man’s world

Alaska is one of 10 states in the U.S. that has more men than women. The male to female ratio in the United States as a whole is about even, but as the population ages, there tend to be more females than males. Even though the sex ratio in the U.S. is almost one to one, a little more than 56 percent all females participated in the labor force in 2021, compared with 67.6 percent of men.