Poorest City in Every State

The median household income in Rapid City, South Dakota, of $51,296 is about $10,000 below the median household income in Sioux Falls — the only other city in the state covered by the 2019 ACS. Rapid City’s lower median income is likely due in part to a weak job market. An average of 5.8% of the city’s labor force were unemployed in 2019, compared to just 2.1% in Sioux Falls and 3.0% across the state as a whole.

Knoxville has the lowest median annual household income of Tennessee’s nine major cities, at $41,388. The city has an outsized share of households living on very low income, as 11.1% of Knoxville households earn under $10,000 annually. Statewide, fewer than 10% of households have this level of income, and nationwide, just 5.8% do.

Though it ranks as Tennessee’s poorest city, Knoxville’s unemployment rate of 4.4% is actually slightly lower than the state and national rate of 4.5%.

Pharr, a small city in southern Texas, has a median annual household income of just $36,342, the lowest of any city in the state and about $28,000 below what the median household income across the state as a whole.

Adults with higher educational attainment typically earn higher than average incomes. In Pharr, only 13.1% of the 25 and older population have a four-year college degree, well below the 30.8% share of adults in the same age groups across all of Texas.

With a median annual household income of $53,864, Provo, Utah, is the only one of the state’s 11 major cities with a median household income lower than $60,000. About 45 miles south of Salt Lake City, Provo is home to Brigham Young University, which may explain why the city’s bachelor’s degree attainment rate is so high, at 45.3%.

Provo residents are well more than twice as likely to live in poverty than Utahns overall, as 24.7% live below the poverty, compared to 8.9% of residents statewide. Despite the relatively low incomes and high poverty rate, Provo homes tend to be worth more than the typical home in Utah.

Virginia is a relatively wealthy state. Most households in the state earn over $76,000 a year, about $10,000 more than the national median household income. Not all parts of the state are wealthier than the U.S. as a whole, however. In Roanoke, the median household income is just $45,838 annually. Roanoke also has a far higher than average poverty rate. About one in every five local residents live below the poverty line, compared to about one in every 10 Virginians who do.