Just because a state is prosperous, it doesn't necessarily follow that all its counties will be equally well off. In fact, as highlighted by 24/7 Wall St.'s special report on the poorest counties in every state, some states are very well off indeed—but some of their counties make life unduly hard on residents. Not just the booming job market but also wage growth have left these residents behind, with annual wages for the state far outpacing those for county residents and the poverty and unemployment rates considerably higher than one might expect. The national median household income is $57,652, but in every state in the union—with the single exception of Connecticut—there's at least one county in which residents can't get to that number. In most states, most residents of those poor counties can't even make it to $40,000 a year. And the people who live in those counties face some common handicaps. Their home counties are mostly rural, with relatively weak job markets — and their average life expectancies are low and their populations are falling. Median annual household incomes for each U.S. county, based on 5-year estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2017 American Community Survey, provided the data, as well as the percentage of adults in each county who have a bachelor's degree or higher; poverty rates; and median home values. In addition, unemployment rates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which are not seasonally adjusted, are for October 2018. Analysis of all this determined each county's placement within its state. Check out the slides above that show the 10 poorest counties in their states, based on the county median household income.
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Marlene Satter
Marlene Y. Satter has worked in and written about the financial industry for decades.
