Women and Poverty, State by State

More than one in seven women, nearly 17.8 million, lived in poverty last year. Poverty rates were particularly high for families headed by single mothers – more than four in ten (40.9 percent) were poor. More than half (56.1 percent) of poor children lived in female-headed families in 2012.

With women as primary breadwinners in more than 40 percent of families today, women and their families simply cannot afford to make do with less.

Click on a state below to see how many female-headed families are living in poverty, plus:

• The share of all women living in poverty
• The share of Black, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American women living in poverty
• The share of children and of women 65 and older living in poverty

You can also download the data for every state, and see more of NWLC's analyses of the latest data on women and poverty.