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Poverty rate, Black: U.S. states ranked (2025)

Measure: Poverty rate, Black (%). All 48 states and District of Columbia with data in Poverty rate by race and Hispanic origin by state, ranked from highest to lowest. Reference period: 2025.

Licence: Public domain (U.S. federal government work).
Data last updated: 2026-11-09

Download full table CSV Source: U.S. Census Bureau (opens in a new tab)

National value: 19.9 (United States).

Small states, hard to see on the map:

DC 30.7 %
RI 7.5 %
DE 10.5 %
CT 14.4 %
NJ 14.3 %
MD 13.7 %
MA 18 %
VT 35.9 %
NH 19.8 %

Lowest: 5.1 to 14.7 %
Group 2: 14.7 to 18.7 %
Group 3: 18.7 to 21.4 %
Group 4: 21.4 to 24.7 %
Highest: 24.7 to 35.9 %

The map is a visual summary; every value is in the table below, which is the keyboard and screen-reader path. Groups are quintiles of the values shown (a derived grouping). Boundaries: Natural Earth (public domain), simplified. Alaska and Hawaii are shown as insets, not to scale.

Rank is derived by Quadranac: 1 = highest value; ties share a rank. Values are as published in the source table.

Note: Rates for smaller groups rest on small ACS samples and have wide margins of error; groups the Census Bureau does not publish for a state are left out.


1	Vermont	35.9
2	District of Columbia	30.7
3	Mississippi	29.3
4	Louisiana	28.2
5	Iowa	26.8
6	Oregon	25.9
7	Michigan	25.7
8	Wisconsin	25.6
9	Arkansas	24.8
10	Alabama	24.7
11	Kentucky	24.5
11	Nebraska	24.5
13	Oklahoma	23.3
14	Illinois	23.1
14	Ohio	23.1
16	Tennessee	22.3
17	Indiana	21.7
18	New York	21.5
19	Nevada	21.4
19	Utah	21.4
21	Pennsylvania	21.3
22	Minnesota	21.2
22	South Carolina	21.2
24	West Virginia	20.8
25	New Mexico	20.7
26	Missouri	20.4
27	South Dakota	20.3
28	New Hampshire	19.8
29	California	19.5
30	North Carolina	18.7
31	Massachusetts	18
32	Texas	17.6
33	Maine	17.3
34	Georgia	17.1
35	Florida	16.4
36	Washington	16.2
37	Kansas	15.3
38	Arizona	14.8
38	Colorado	14.8
40	Virginia	14.7
41	Connecticut	14.4
42	New Jersey	14.3
43	Maryland	13.7
44	Alaska	11
45	Delaware	10.5
46	Idaho	10.1
47	Hawaii	9.7
48	Rhode Island	7.5
49	North Dakota	5.1

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 1-year estimates, Table S1701: Poverty Status in the Past 12 Months. Reference period: 2025.

Cite this ranking

U.S. states ranked by poverty rate, Black (%) (2025). Data: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, ACS 1-year estimates, Table S1701; rank derived by Quadranac. Data last updated 2026-11-09. https://quadranac.com/rankings/us-states-by-poverty-rate-black/

Download source table CSV All rankings