Why it is more difficult to be poor in some states than others
“The poverty rate in the poorest state (Mississippi) averaged 24.3% – more than 3.5 times higher than the 6.6% average rate in New Hampshire, which was the lowest. One key to understanding how many people live in poverty is seeing how many residents in a state have one or more of four common risks that often push people below the poverty line: low education, single motherhood, unemployment and having a lead earner under 25 years old. As expected, states with more residents who have one or more of those risks tended to have more people in poverty. On average, one in three people in the U.S. has at least one of these risks. But in high-poverty Mississippi, 42% of residents had at least one of the four risks, compared to 25% in low-poverty New Hampshire.”