More than one in nine women aged 18 and older – over 15.5 million – lived in poverty in 2022. Poverty rates were particularly high for Black women (16.6 percent) and Latinas (16.8 percent). Over 3 in 10 (32.0 percent) families headed by single women with children were poor in 2022. Women made up 6 in 10 seniors who lived in poverty last year, with the poverty rate for senior women at 11.2 percent.  

Click on a state below to see its poverty rate for families headed by single women with children, plus: 

The share of women overall, Black women, Latinas, Asian women, Native women, and white, non-Hispanic women living in poverty, and the share of children and of women 65 and older living in poverty. 

Sources:

National poverty rates calculated by NWLC based on U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, 2023 Annual Social and Economic Supplement (https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cps.html). 

State poverty rates calculated by NWLC based on 2022 American Community Survey (https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/). 

Note:

The “Black” race category includes those who identified themselves in the U.S. Census Bureau Current Population Survey as Black or African American. The “Asian” race category includes those who identified themselves as Asian. The “Native” race category includes those who identified themselves as American Indian or Alaskan Native. The “white, non-Hispanic” race category includes those who identified themselves as white, but not of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin. The “Latinas” category includes people of any race who identified themselves to be of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin. 

Dashes indicate unavailable data. Data are provided for women ages 18 and over. Families headed by single women with children are families with female householders, no husband present and related children under 18.