More than one in nine women aged 18 and older – nearly 15.3 million – lived in poverty in 2021. Poverty rates were particularly high for Black women (18.8 percent), and Latinas (17.0 percent). Over 3 in 10 (32.1 percent) female-headed families with children were poor in 2021. Women made up more than 6 in 10 seniors who lived in poverty last year, with the poverty rate for senior women at 11.6 percent.

Click on a state below to see its poverty rate for female-headed families with children, plus poverty rates for women, Black women, Latinas, Asian women, Native women, white women, children, and older women:

Sources:

National poverty rates calculated by NWLC based on U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, 2022 Annual Social and Economic Supplement (https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cps.html).

State poverty rates calculated by NWLC based on 2021 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. Female-headed families are families with female householders, no husband present and related children under 18.