Poverty by State: NWLC Analysis Reveals Which States Have Highest Poverty Rates for Women

Washington, DC – The National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) released a new interactive resource revealing which states have the worst poverty rates for single moms. The map, which allows users to scroll over each state to view its poverty rates, also shows poverty rates for women overall, older women, children, and Black, Latina, Native, Asian, and white women.

“Poverty is a policy choice,” said Amy Matsui, vice president of child care and income security at NWLC. “During the pandemic, expanded refundable tax credits, more robust unemployment insurance benefits, and more generous food assistance helped dramatically reduce poverty rates for women and children. We’ve seen what works. It’s past time that lawmakers at every level of government got serious about fixing a broken system where the rich keep getting richer, while leaving millions of women and families behind.”


Sources: National poverty rates calculated by NWLC based on U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, 2025 Annual Social and Economic Supplement (https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cps.html). State poverty rates and Native women’s national poverty rate calculated by NWLC based on 2024 American Community Survey (https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/). 

NWLC is a national leader in using data to expose and address gender and racial inequities in the U.S. Earlier this year, the organization released an analysis showing that the wage gap widened for an unprecedented second year in a row.