U.S. poverty rate: top 25 most populated cities 2021

In 2021, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was the city with the highest poverty rate of the United States' most populated cities. In this statistic, the cities are sorted by poverty rate, not population. The most populated city in 2021 according to the source was New York city - which had a poverty rate of 18 percent.

Percentage of people who live below the poverty level in the most populated cities in the United States in 2021

Characteristic	Percentage of people below the poverty line
Philadelphia city, Pennsylvania	22.8%
Houston city, Texas	19.4%
El Paso city, Texas	19.1%
Boston city, Massachusetts	18.7%
New York city, New York	18%
Columbus city, Ohio	17.7%
Los Angeles city, California	17.1%
Chicago city, Illinois	17.1%
San Antonio city, Texas	17%
Dallas city, Texas	16.5%
Washington city, District of Columbia	16.5%
Oklahoma City city, Oklahoma	15.8%
Jacksonville city, Florida	15.4%
Indianapolis city (balance), Indiana	15.4%
Nashville-Davidson metropolitan government (balance), Tennessee	15.3%
Phoenix city, Arizona	14.9%
Las Vegas city, Nevada	14.8%
Fort Worth city, Texas	14.4%
Austin city, Texas	12.7%
San Diego city, California	11.7%
Denver city, Colorado	11.6%
Charlotte city, North Carolina	11.3%
San Francisco city, California	11.3%
Seattle city, Washington	11%
San Jose city, California	7.4%

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Release date

September 2022

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Region

United States

Survey time period

2021

Supplementary notes

The poverty threshold, or poverty line, is the minimum level of income deemed necessary to achieve an adequate standard of living in a given country. In practice, like the definition of poverty, the official or common understanding of the poverty line is significantly higher in developed countries than in developing countries.

Population data for U.S. cities can be found here.

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