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.
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, 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 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.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/legal/#copyright-public-domainhttps://fred.stlouisfed.org/legal/#copyright-public-domain
Graph and download economic data for Estimated Percent of People of All Ages in Poverty for United States (PPAAUS00000A156NCEN) from 1989 to 2023 about percent, child, poverty, and USA.
Globally, the gap between the richest and poorest population is widening, and United States of America is no exception. Waldo Tobler's First Law of Geography states that near things are more related than distant things, which can sometimes be seen within a map as clustering of features. Use this map to explore the distribution of households within the income extremes.The app allows the user to explore an area by typing an area of interest into the search bar. Dot density is used to represent multiple households per dot and are contained within census tract boundaries. A pop-up appears at larger scales in order to provide a chart comparing the household count for the highest and lowest income ranges. The highest income range covers households which make $200,000 or more a year. The lowest income range shows households making less than $25,000 a year. The map is shown from 36M scale to 72K scale and is designed to be displayed on the Dark Gray Canvas Basemap.The data within this map comes from Esri's Updated Demographics. The vintage of the data and boundaries is 2015.
Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
License information was derived automatically
United States US: Account: Income: Poorest 40%: % Aged 15+ data was reported at 87.116 % in 2014. This records an increase from the previous number of 80.995 % for 2011. United States US: Account: Income: Poorest 40%: % Aged 15+ data is updated yearly, averaging 84.056 % from Dec 2011 (Median) to 2014, with 2 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 87.116 % in 2014 and a record low of 80.995 % in 2011. United States US: Account: Income: Poorest 40%: % Aged 15+ data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.World Bank.WDI: Banking Indicators. Denotes the percentage of respondents who report having an account (by themselves or together with someone else). For 2011, this can be an account at a bank or another type of financial institution, and for 2014 this can be a mobile account as well (see year-specific definitions for details) (income, poorest 40%, % age 15+). [ts: data are available for multiple waves].; ; Demirguc-Kunt et al., 2015, Global Financial Inclusion Database, World Bank.; Weighted average;
This map compares the relationship between annual average particulate matter 2.5 (PM 2.5) air quality data for the US between 1998 and 2016 to the percent of households that are below the poverty level. Poverty data is from the American Community Survey estimates and air quality data is from NASA SEDAC gridded data aggregated to states, counties, congressional districts, and 50km hex bins. Click on the map to view more information such as the trend over time.
Click here to view more information on how this layer was created.
Citations:
This statistic represents the tax burden of the poorest 20 percent in the U.S. in year 2018, by state. The tax rate is the total average state and local taxes as a percentage of income. In 2018, the poorest 20 percent in Washington paid almost 17.8 percent of their family income as a tax.
In February 2025, the average hourly earnings of all employees in the United States was at 11.24 U.S. dollars. The data have been seasonally adjusted. The deflators used for constant-dollar earnings shown here come from the Consumer Price Indexes Programs. The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Employees (CPI-U) is used to deflate the data for all employees. A comparison of the rate of wage growth versus the monthly inflation since 2020 rate can be accessed here. Real wages are wages that have been adjusted for inflation.
In 2023, the poverty rate of the United States was around 11.4 percent. Louisiana was the state with the highest poverty rate, at 18.9 percent. Poverty rates in the United States are higher than in many parts of the world, and minority groups are much more likely to be living in poverty when compared to white people.
Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
License information was derived automatically
United States - Population, Total for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries was 823480038.00000 Persons in January of 2020, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, United States - Population, Total for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries reached a record high of 823480038.00000 in January of 2020 and a record low of 161734348.00000 in January of 1960. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for United States - Population, Total for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on March of 2025.
Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
License information was derived automatically
United States US: Gini Coefficient (GINI Index): World Bank Estimate data was reported at 41.500 % in 2016. This records an increase from the previous number of 41.000 % for 2013. United States US: Gini Coefficient (GINI Index): World Bank Estimate data is updated yearly, averaging 40.400 % from Dec 1979 (Median) to 2016, with 11 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 41.500 % in 2016 and a record low of 34.600 % in 1979. United States US: Gini Coefficient (GINI Index): World Bank Estimate data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.World Bank.WDI: Poverty. Gini index measures the extent to which the distribution of income (or, in some cases, consumption expenditure) among individuals or households within an economy deviates from a perfectly equal distribution. A Lorenz curve plots the cumulative percentages of total income received against the cumulative number of recipients, starting with the poorest individual or household. The Gini index measures the area between the Lorenz curve and a hypothetical line of absolute equality, expressed as a percentage of the maximum area under the line. Thus a Gini index of 0 represents perfect equality, while an index of 100 implies perfect inequality.; ; World Bank, Development Research Group. Data are based on primary household survey data obtained from government statistical agencies and World Bank country departments. For more information and methodology, please see PovcalNet (http://iresearch.worldbank.org/PovcalNet/index.htm).; ; The World Bank’s internationally comparable poverty monitoring database now draws on income or detailed consumption data from more than one thousand six hundred household surveys across 164 countries in six regions and 25 other high income countries (industrialized economies). While income distribution data are published for all countries with data available, poverty data are published for low- and middle-income countries and countries eligible to receive loans from the World Bank (such as Chile) and recently graduated countries (such as Estonia) only. See PovcalNet (http://iresearch.worldbank.org/PovcalNet/WhatIsNew.aspx) for definitions of geographical regions and industrialized countries.
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.
Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
License information was derived automatically
This dataset is about books and is filtered where the book subjects includes Poor-United States-Social conditions-21st century, featuring 9 columns including author, BNB id, book, book publisher, and book subjects. The preview is ordered by publication date (descending).
Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
License information was derived automatically
This dataset is about books and is filtered where the book subjects is Rural poor-United States-Interviews, featuring 9 columns including author, BNB id, book, book publisher, and book subjects. The preview is ordered by publication date (descending).
Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
License information was derived automatically
United States SBOI: sa: Most Pressing Problem: A Year Ago: Poor Sales data was reported at 6.000 % in Jan 2025. This records an increase from the previous number of 5.000 % for Dec 2024. United States SBOI: sa: Most Pressing Problem: A Year Ago: Poor Sales data is updated monthly, averaging 10.000 % from Jan 2014 (Median) to Jan 2025, with 129 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 19.000 % in Apr 2021 and a record low of 2.000 % in Jun 2019. United States SBOI: sa: Most Pressing Problem: A Year Ago: Poor Sales data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by National Federation of Independent Business. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.S032: NFIB Index of Small Business Optimism. [COVID-19-IMPACT]
In the U.S., the share of the population living in poverty fluctuated significantly throughout the six decades between 1987 and 2023. In 2023, the poverty level across all races and ethnicities was 11.1 percent. Black Americans have been the ethnic group with the highest share of their population living in poverty almost every year since 1974. In 1979 alone, Black poverty was well over double the national average, and over four times the poverty rate in white communities; in 1982, almost 48 percent of the Black population lived in poverty. Although poverty rates have been trending downward across all ethnic groups, 17.8 percent of Black Americans and 18.9 percent of American Indian and Alaskan Natives still lived below the poverty line in 2022.
Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
License information was derived automatically
Estimated Infant Mortality Rate among dimensional poor in five-year periods preceding the survey in selected states of India, 2005–06.
New York was the state with the greatest gap between rich and poor, with a Gini coefficient score of 0.52 in 2023. Although not a state, District of Columbia was among the highest Gini coefficients in the United States that year.
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.