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15 Poorest Cities in the US that are Actually Growing Fast
Ali Hassan
10 min read

In This Article:

In this article, we will be looking at the 15 poorest cities in the US that are actually growing fast. You can skip our detailed analysis and head directly to the 5 Poorest Cities in the US that are Actually Growing Fast.

Poverty in the US: An Analysis

The United States is on the verge of being replaced by China as the largest economy in the world. China is expected to be the largest economy in the world by 2040 with a forecasted real GDP of $34.10 trillion. The United States will drop to the second spot with a forecasted real GDP of $32 trillion. Though economic power is transferring from the US to China, the land of opportunities will remain an important player in the global economy. In September 2023, the US Census Bureau posted a poverty report in which it highlighted that the official poverty rate of the US in 2022 was 11.5%, representing approximately 37.9 million people in poverty. The poverty rate in the US was not much different from 2021, which was 11.6% that year. The supplemental poverty measure (SPM) soared to 12.4% in 2022, a rise of 4.6% from 2021. The increase in the SPM rate was the first since 2010. The official poverty rate remains higher than in the pre-pandemic era when it was 10.5% in 2019. Between 2021 and 2022, most of the demographic groups in the US did not experience significant changes in their poverty rates. Black individuals saw a decline in their official poverty rate between 2021 and 2022, dropping from 19.5% to 17.1%. While, the White and non-Hispanic White people both saw a 0.5% increase in their official poverty rate, jumping from 10% to 10.5% and 8.1% to 8.6% between 2021 and 2022, respectively. 

Overall, the US has a diverse economy with various demographics and income brackets. According to the World Inequality Database, almost 20% of the US national income goes to the richest 1% of the population and nearly 50% of national income goes to the top 10%. The US states where the poverty rates are the lowest are a mix of the country’s demographics including the Northeast region and some from the Midwest and West. New Hampshire is the state with the lowest poverty rate of 7.2%, as per the Census Bureau’s 2022 American Community Survey. New Hampshire’s poverty rate has gone down by 28% from 10% to 7.2% in the last decade. Utah makes it to the second spot with the lowest poverty rate, with only 8.2% of its people living below the poverty line. The US states with the highest poverty rates are mostly Southern states, and some exceptions such as New York and New Mexico. Mississippi has the worst poverty level, where 19.1% or almost one-fifth of the population were living below the poverty line in 2022. The good thing is that Mississippi has experienced an improvement, over its 21.5% poverty rate in 2017.

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