Out of all OECD countries, Cost Rica had the highest poverty rate as of 2022, at over 20 percent. The country with the second highest poverty rate was the United States, with 18 percent. On the other end of the scale, Czechia had the lowest poverty rate at 6.4 percent, followed by Denmark.

The significance of the OECD

The OECD, or the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, was founded in 1948 and is made up of 38 member countries. It seeks to improve the economic and social well-being of countries and their populations. The OECD looks at issues that impact people’s everyday lives and proposes policies that can help to improve the quality of life.

Poverty in the United States

In 2022, there were nearly 38 million people living below the poverty line in the U.S.. About one fourth of the Native American population lived in poverty in 2022, the most out of any ethnicity. In addition, the rate was higher among young women than young men. It is clear that poverty in the United States is a complex, multi-faceted issue that affects millions of people and is even more complex to solve.

A dataset listing the 20 richest counties in Maryland for 2024, including information on rank, county, population, average income, and median income.

Most-to-Least Influential County-Level Economic Variables Contributing to County Prevalence of Poor Mental Health Based on Dominance Analysis Ranked by Standardized Dominance Weights, Overall and by Urban/Rural Classification, United States, 2019.

Beta Coefficients, 95% Confidence Interval, and Statistical Significance for County-Level Economic Variables Using Linear Regression with Prevalence of Poor Mental Health as the Dependent Variable, Overall and by Urban/Rural Classification, United States, 2019. Blue-filled cells indicate a positive association between the variable and the dependent variable; red-filled cells indicate a negative association; greyed out cells indicate the variable was not significant; blank cells indicate a variable that was not included in the model.

Among the OECD countries, Costa Rica had the highest share of children living in poverty, reaching 28.5 percent in 2022. Türkiye followed with a share of 22 percent of children living in poverty, while 20.5 percent of children in Spain, Chile, and the United States did the same. On the other hand, only three percent of children in Finland were living in poverty.