Arizona, California and Nevada are among the U.S. states with the highest poverty rates, according to new data released today that also takes into account more cost of living measures.
The new data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows the highest percentage of poor persons in California, the District of Columbia, Nevada, Florida and Arizona. The total number of poor persons at 49.4 million. Arizona has 1.23 million persons living in poverty, according to new measures. The state has 1.21 million in the traditional measure.
The federal poverty line for a family of two is $15,510 per year; for a family of four it is $23,550.
California and Texas have the most poor persons, 8.9 million and 4.2 million, respectively. They also are the two most populous states.
Iowa has the lowest poverty rate in the new measure at 8.6 percent, according to the Census data.
Conventional U.S. poverty figures show Mississippi, Louisiana and New Mexico with the highest poverty rates and the total number of poor people in the country at 46.8 million persons.
States with highest poverty rates
- California: 23.6%
- D.C.: 22.7%
- Nevada: 19.8%
- Florida: 19.5 %
- Arizona: 18.8%
Source: Census Bureau