Student poverty continues to be one of the most press challenges school leaders face. The median student poverty rate for children in all U.S. school districts in 2021 was 14.5%, the U.S. Census Bureau reports, though the figure masks severe financial in some communities.
The agency’s Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates report provides the only up-to-date poverty statistics for all of the nation’s 13,157 school districts. In 2021, the county-level poverty rate for children ages 5 to 17 ranged from 2.4% to 61.1%. Here’s where each state ranks, from the highest level of student poverty to the lowest:
- Lousiana: 25.9%
- Mississippi: 25.7%
- District of Columbia: 25.5%
- New Mexico: 22.1%
- Alabama: 21.6%
- Arkansas: 20.1%
- West Virginia: 20%
- Kentucky: 19.9%
- Georgia: 19.6%
- Oklahoma: 19%
- South Carolina: 18.8%
- Texas: 18.6%
- New York: 18.2%
- Tennessee: 17.7%
- Florida: 17.5%
- Nevada: 17.5%
- North Carolina: 17.2%
- Ohio: 16.9%
- Arizona: 16.7%
- Michigan: 16.5%
- Rhode Island: 16%
- Pennsylvania: 15.5%
- California: 15.4%
- Missouri: 15.4%
- Delaware: 15%
- Illinois: 15%
- Indiana: 14.6%
- Montana: 13.6%
- Maryland: 13.3%
- New Jersey: 13.2%
- South Dakota: 13.1%
- Maine: 12.9%
- Oregon: 12.9%
- Wisconsin: 12.9%
- Alaska: 12.9%
- Virginia: 12.7%
- Hawaii: 12.6%
- Massachusetts: 12.3%
- Connecticut: 12.2%
- Kansas: 12.2%
- Iowa: 11.6%
- Washington: 11.2%
- Idaho: 11.1%
- Nebraska: 11.1%
- Colorado: 10.9%
- Wyoming: 10.7%
- North Dakota: 10.5%
- Vermont: 10.5%
- Minnesota: 10.1%
- New Hampshire: 8.8%
- Utah: 7.6%
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Beyond the districts, the county-level poverty rate ranged from 2.9% to 43.9% and the county-level median household income ranged from $25,653 to $153,716 in 2021. Median household income increased significantly in 3.4% of counties and fell significantly in 8.2% of counties from 2020 to 2021.
The Census Bureau estimates poverty rates for every school district in the nation.
