Census Releases State-by-State Poverty Data

New data released today (September 22, 2011) by the U.S. Census Bureau show the extent of poverty, and of child poverty, in every state in 2010. Findings from the report include:

• Overall, state poverty rates ranged from a high of 22.4 percent in Mississippi to a low of 8.3 percent in New Hampshire. The other states with the highest poverty rates were New Mexico (20.4 percent), Washington, D.C. (19.2 percent), Kentucky (19 percent), and Alabama (19 percent).
• Half of the states (including Washington, D.C.) have more than one in five children living in poverty (20 percent or higher). Eleven states have child poverty rates above 25 percent. Child poverty ranged from a high of 32.5 percent in Mississippi to a low of 10 percent in New Hampshire.
  
• Every state had at least one in four children living in families with incomes below 185 percent of the federal poverty line – the level at which most children are eligible to receive free or reduced-price meals through the school meals programs and which many states use as the income cut-off for SNAP. In 42 states at least one in three children lived below 185 percent of poverty.
  

Visit FRAC’s website for state-by-state charts on poverty and child poverty.

Commenting on the numbers, FRAC President Jim Weill noted that the new data underscore the need to keep the nutrition safety net strong. “Poverty rates remain too high, and especially the rates among children,” said Weill. “The nutrition programs are helping many of them gain access to healthy food. States should look at these numbers and ratchet up their efforts to reach more eligible people with the nutrition programs. And Congress should see these numbers as further evidence of the need to support job creation and protect the federal nutrition programs from deficit cutting measures.”

Earlier this month, the Census Bureau released national data on poverty, showing an increase in 2010 to 46.2 million in the number of Americans in poverty. It also showed the importance of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps). According to the Census Bureau, 3.9 million people – 1.7 million of them children – were lifted above the poverty line in 2010 under the alternative computation that counts SNAP benefits. In 2009, SNAP had lifted 3.6 million people out of poverty.

For more information, visit FRAC’s website.