National ranking · Top 100 · data updated July 2026

Top 100 Poorest Cities in America by Poverty Rate

This list ranks the 100 large US cities with the highest poverty rates, using U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates (2023), Table S1701. “Poorest” here means the share of residents below the federal poverty line, not household income, wealth, or cost of living. A population floor of 50,000 keeps very small-place estimates from dominating the comparison.

100
Cities ranked
#1
Mayagüez zona urbana
47.3%
Poverty Rate

Data updated July 2026

The headline finding

Mayagüez zona urbana, PR tops this list at 47.3% poverty rate, making the top 100 requires at least 16.1%.

Mayagüez zona urbana, PR
#1 · 47.3%
16.1%
#100 cutoff
100
cities in this ranking

Every figure here is read live from the same U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates (2023) data rendered in the table below.

A note on this ranking: Poverty rate is an American Community Survey estimate of the share of residents below the federal poverty line. It is not a ranking of household wealth, local prices, or overall quality of life, and estimates can carry sampling uncertainty.

These 100 cities span 27 states. Ohio has the most entries on this list: 9 (9% of the total). Ohio state page.

How we calculate the state breakdown

The state count and leader above are a live tally of this list's own 100 rows, grouped by state. See the methodology page for the full source-to-figure lineage.

Top 12 cities by poverty rate

Hover or tap a bar for the city, value and rank

Poverty Rate

What this shows Mayagüez zona urbana, Puerto Rico ranks #1 on poverty rate among the cities in this ranking; the full top 100 is listed below.

Source U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates (2023), Table S1701 As of 2023
Rank City Poverty Rate
1 Mayagüez zona urbana , PR 47.3%
2 Ponce zona urbana , PR 47.1%
3 Caguas zona urbana , PR 38.4%
4 San Juan zona urbana , PR 35.4%
5 Youngstown , OH 30.9%
6 Bayamón zona urbana , PR 30.3%
7 Gary , IN 29.0%
8 Pharr , TX 27.8%
9 Harrisburg , PA 27.5%
10 Port Arthur , TX 27.2%
11 Detroit , MI 26.9%
12 Flint , MI 26.9%
13 Carolina zona urbana , PR 25.7%
14 Camden , NJ 25.6%
15 New Brunswick , NJ 25.4%
16 Lakewood , NJ 25.3%
17 Cleveland , OH 25.2%
18 Syracuse , NY 24.2%
19 Albany , GA 24.2%
20 Canton , OH 23.6%
21 Reading , PA 23.1%
22 Utica , NY 22.9%
23 Rochester , NY 22.5%
24 Brownsville , TX 22.5%
25 Edinburg , TX 22.4%
26 Buffalo , NY 22.3%
27 Passaic , NJ 22.0%
28 Madera , CA 21.7%
29 Hartford , CT 21.4%
30 Newark , NJ 21.0%
31 Lorain , OH 21.0%
32 Paterson , NJ 20.9%
33 Jackson , MS 20.9%
34 Dayton , OH 20.9%
35 Trenton , NJ 20.7%
36 Kissimmee , FL 20.6%
37 Waterbury , CT 20.3%
38 Gulfport , MS 20.2%
39 Harlingen , TX 19.9%
40 Valdosta , GA 19.9%
41 Erie , PA 19.6%
42 Jackson , TN 19.6%
43 Pontiac , MI 19.6%
44 Birmingham , AL 19.4%
45 Dearborn , MI 19.4%
46 Schenectady , NY 19.3%
47 Troy , NY 19.2%
48 Toledo , OH 19.1%
49 Springfield , MA 19.0%
50 Macon-Bibb County , GA 18.9%
51 Fall River , MA 18.8%
52 Wilmington , DE 18.7%
53 Milwaukee , WI 18.6%
54 Baton Rouge , LA 18.6%
55 Merced , CA 18.6%
56 Terre Haute , IN 18.6%
57 Scranton , PA 18.5%
58 Cincinnati , OH 18.4%
59 Laredo , TX 18.4%
60 Shreveport , LA 18.4%
61 Bridgeport , CT 18.3%
62 New Haven , CT 18.3%
63 Perth Amboy , NJ 18.1%
64 Memphis , TN 17.9%
65 McAllen , TX 17.8%
66 Florence-Graham , CA 17.8%
67 Montgomery , AL 17.7%
68 Lancaster , PA 17.7%
69 Augusta-Richmond County consolidated government (balance) , GA 17.6%
70 Sunrise Manor , NV 17.6%
71 Akron , OH 17.6%
72 Philadelphia , PA 17.5%
73 Muncie , IN 17.5%
74 Allentown , PA 17.3%
75 Guaynabo zona urbana , PR 17.3%
76 Springfield , OH 17.3%
77 Bowling Green , KY 17.2%
78 Kalamazoo , MI 17.2%
79 North Little Rock , AR 17.2%
80 Las Cruces , NM 17.1%
81 South Bend , IN 17.0%
82 Lauderhill , FL 17.0%
83 Rockford , IL 16.7%
84 New Bedford , MA 16.7%
85 Rocky Mount , NC 16.7%
86 Union City , NJ 16.6%
87 Dundalk , MD 16.6%
88 Kingsport , TN 16.6%
89 Bryan , TX 16.5%
90 Victorville , CA 16.4%
91 Dearborn Heights , MI 16.4%
92 Owensboro , KY 16.4%
93 Fresno , CA 16.3%
94 New Orleans , LA 16.3%
95 Pine Hills , FL 16.3%
96 Lake Charles , LA 16.2%
97 Elkhart , IN 16.2%
98 Houston , TX 16.1%
99 El Cajon , CA 16.1%
100 Lawton , OK 16.1%

According to the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (2023 vintage, released December 2024), the underlying dataset behind this ranking spans 28,702 U.S. incorporated places and census-designated places nationally; this page shows the top 100 by poverty rate. See our methodology for the full data-collection process.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates (2023), Table S1701. Verify directly with the source agency: U.S. Census Bureau, FBI UCR, NOAA, NCES.

What to do with the poorest cities in america by poverty rate list

Use this ranking to narrow the field, then dig into the specific places you're considering.

  • Mayagüez zona urbana, PR leads this list at 47.3% -- see its full profile before drawing conclusions from the rank alone. Mayagüez zona urbana profile
  • Put two specific cities side by side across every tracked metric, not just this one ranking. Compare cities
  • See every ranked city in Puerto Rico together, not just how Mayagüez zona urbana compares nationally. Puerto Rico state page

Poverty rate is an American Community Survey estimate of the share of residents below the federal poverty line. It is not a ranking of household wealth, local prices, or overall quality of life, and estimates can carry sampling uncertainty.

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Primary sources: Census ACS, FBI UCR, NOAA Climate Normals, NCES.

Related

Browse all city profiles → | Explore city rankings →
Data sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainCities Editorial

Verify with U.S. Census Bureau →

Every figure on PlainCities is rendered directly from Census ACS source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on Census ACS source data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.