Wealth across the United States is in flux, with income gaps growing sharper even as median household incomes creep upward. According to 2024 data from the Census Bureau, the U.S. median household income was $83,730, only modestly up from about $82,690 in 2023—showing how gains are rising, but slowly.
Yet that national average masks wide disparities: States like Massachusetts, New Jersey, Maryland, and California show much higher thresholds for what counts as middle class, while in lower-income states, the same dollar amount buys far more in terms of cost of living.
Broader economic events are shaping these income differences. The divergence underscores that while income is increasing broadly, inflation, higher costs, and differing industry performance erode what people can buy and the relative strength of state economies. Inflation, while somewhat tamed from its peak, remains above comfort levels in producer prices and key consumer sectors.
A household that appears well-off in one state may struggle in another due to living costs. In addition, wealth gaps are increasingly driven by asset ownership—home equity has ballooned in many states, boosting net worth for homeowners while renters fall further behind. In lower-income states, the lack of sectoral diversification plays a role—over-reliance on extractive industries, agriculture, or low-wage service sectors—limits resilience to economic shocks.
In states like Mississippi, West Virginia, and Louisiana, incomes are between 20 and 27% below the U.S. median, and poverty rates often hover well above the national average. For instance, Mississippi has the lowest median household income—just over $59,000 in 2024—and around 18% of its population lives in poverty, nearly double the national rate. These gaps are not just numbers; they translate into limited access to health care, weaker infrastructure, lower education attainment, and fewer well-paying jobs, all of which reinforce a cycle of hardship.
To see how these numbers vary nationwide, Stacker explored the economies of all 50 states, with statistics from the Census Bureau's 2024 1-Year American Community Survey used to rank the poorest states by median household income. The review also includes statistics on median earnings, employment rate, health insurance coverage, and poverty level.
Editor's note: The data point on median earnings is broken down to highlight the discrepancies between women and men. However, the Census collects data with a binary understanding of sex and gender, not considering other gender identities and potentially conflating sex and gender.
