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Poverty in the United States: Explore the Data

Use U.S. Census Bureau poverty data to explore more than a dozen topics that measure the health of the economy at the state and congressional district levels.

The U.S. Census Bureau could not provide its typical state and congressional district data for 2020 because the pandemic interrupted the data collection process. Experimental data were released instead, but the Census Bureau does not suggest comparing it to the standard estimates, so it is not included here.

In Maryland

618,372

People were living in poverty in 2021 from a population of 6,023,847

  • Gender and Age

  • Official poverty rate 1

    10.3%

    Ranked: #10

    Percentage of people who who had incomes below the poverty threshold—$27,479 for a family of four—in 2021

  • Child poverty rate 2

    13.7%

    Ranked: #20

    Percentage of children under 18 in related families who had incomes below the poverty threshold in 2021

  • Women's poverty rate 3

    11.2%

    Ranked: #10

    Percentage of women who had incomes below the poverty threshold in 2021

  • Men's poverty rate 4

    9.2%

    Ranked: #9

    Percentage of men who had incomes below the poverty threshold in 2021

  • Race and Ethnicity

  • African-American poverty rate 5

    14.5%

    Percentage of African-Americans who had incomes below the poverty threshold in 2021

  • Asian-American poverty rate 6

    8.8%

    Percentage of Asian-Americans who had incomes below the poverty threshold in 2021

  • Native American poverty rate 7

    11.0%

    Percentage of Native Americans who had incomes below the poverty threshold in 2021

  • Hispanic or Latino poverty rate 8

    15.3%

    Percentage of Hispanics or Latinos who had incomes below the poverty threshold in 2021

  • White poverty rate 9

    6.6%

    Percentage of non-Hispanic or Latino whites who had incomes below the poverty threshold in 2021

  • High school graduation 10

    86.8%

    Ranked: #25

    Percentage of public high school students who graduated on time in the 2019-20 school year

  • Disconnected youth 11

    12.0%

    Ranked: #18

    Percentage of youth ages 18 to 24 with no degree beyond high school who were not in school or working in 2021

  • Higher education attainment rate 12

    51.8%

    Ranked: #13

    Percentage of young adults ages 25 to 34 who had an associate degree or higher in 2021

  • Unemployment rate 13

    5.8%

    Ranked: #40

    Percentage of all workers who were unemployed in 2021

  • Gender wage gap 14

    79¢

    Ranked: #4

    Median earnings of all working women compared to that of men in 2021

  • Unemployment insurance coverage 15

    22.8%

    Ranked: #46

    Percentage of unemployed workers who received unemployment insurance in 2021

  • Income inequality 16

    16.1%

    Ranked: #27

    The share of income going to the top 20 percent of households versus that going to the bottom 20 percent of households in 2021

  • Children living apart from parents 17

    3 kids

    Ranked: #5

    Number of children who lived in foster care for every 1,000 children under age 18 in 2021

  • Teen birth rate 18

    11 births

    Ranked: #16

    Number of births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 19 in 2021

  • Lack of health insurance coverage 19

    13.8%

    Ranked: #23

    Percentage of people under age 65 and below 138 percent of the poverty threshold who did not have health insurance at any time in 2021

  • Hunger and food insecurity 20

    8.7%

    Ranked: #11

    Percentage of households that were food insecure on average in 2021, meaning that at some point during the year, they experienced difficulty providing enough food for their families due to a lack of money or resources*

  • Affordable and available housing 21

    30 units

    Ranked: #42

    Number of apartments or other units that were affordable and available for every 100 renter households with extremely low incomes—those with incomes at or below the federal poverty guideline or 30 percent of the area median income—in 2021

  • Savings and assets 22

    2.7%

    Ranked: #10

    Percentage of households who used high-cost, high-risk forms of credit to make ends meet during 2021, including payday loans, automobile title loans, refund anticipation loans, rent-to-own, and pawning

  • Zero or negative net worth 23

    12.4%

    Ranked: #29

    Percentage of households with zero or negative net worth—the sum of assets minus the sum of liabilities—in 2021

Share these data

Poverty in the United States: Compare the States

Use U.S. Census Bureau poverty data to compare states across more than a dozen topics that measure the health of the economy.

Compare States

Poverty in the United States: Explore the Map

Use U.S. Census Bureau poverty data to explore more than a dozen topics that measure the health of the economy at the state and national levels.

See The Data

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Endnotes

  1. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2021
  2. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2021
  3. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2021
  4. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2021
  5. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2021
  6. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2021
  7. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2021
  8. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2021
  9. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2021
  10. National Center for Education Statistics, Public high school 4-year adjusted cohort graduation rate (ACGR) for the United States, (U.S. Department of Education, 2021), available at https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/data_tables.asp#Page:1.
  11. Kids Count Data Center, Persons age 18 to 24 not attending school, not working, and no degree beyond high school (The Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2023), available at https://datacenter.aecf.org/data/tables/5063-persons-age-18-to-24-not-attending-school-not-working-and-no-degree-beyond-high-school?loc=1&loct=1#detailed/2/2-53/true/2048/any/11485.
  12. United States Census Bureau, Sex by Age by Educational Attainment: 2021 American Community Survey 1-year Estimates, (U.S. Department of Commerce, 2022) available at https://data.census.gov/table?q=B15001:+SEX+BY+AGE+BY+EDUCATIONAL+ATTAINMENT+FOR+THE+POPULATION+18+YEARS+AND+OVER&tid=ACSDT1Y2021.B15001.
  13. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Local Area Unemployment Statistics, 2021, available at https://www.bls.gov/lau/lastrk21.htm
  14. Jessica Semega and Melissa Kollar, "Income in the United States: 2021" (Washington: U.S. Census Bureau, 2022), available at https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2022/demo/p60-276.html.
  15. Employment and Training Administration, Unemployment Insurance Chartbook, (U.S. Department of Labor, 2021), available at https://oui.doleta.gov/unemploy/chartbook.asp.
  16. United States Census Bureau, Shares of Aggregate Household Income by Quintile: 2021 American Community Survey 1-year Estimates, (U.S. Department of Commerce, 2022) available at https://data.census.gov/table?q=B19082:+SHARES+OF+AGGREGATE+HOUSEHOLD+INCOME+BY+QUINTILE&tid=ACSDT1Y2021.B19082.
  17. Kids Count Data Center, Children 0 to 17 in Foster Care, (The Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2023), available at https://datacenter.aecf.org/data/tables/6242-children-ages-birth-to-17-in-foster-care?loc=1&loct=2#detailed/2/2-52/true/2048/any/20455.
  18. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “National Vital Statistics Reports: Births Final Data for 2021”, Vol. 72 No. 1, (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2023), available at https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr72/nvsr72-01.pdf.
  19. United States Census Bureau, Health Insurance Coverage Status by Ratio of Income to Poverty: 2021 American Community Survey 1-year Estimates, (U.S. Department of Commerce, 2022), available at https://data.census.gov/table?q=C27016:+HEALTH+INSURANCE+COVERAGE+STATUS+BY+RATIO+OF+INCOME+TO+POVERTY+LEVEL+IN+THE+PAST+12+MONTHS+BY+AGE&tid=ACSDT1Y2021.C27016.
  20. Alisha Coleman-Jensen, Matthew Rabbitt, Christian Gregory, and Anita Singh for the Economic Research Service, “Household Food Security in the United States in 2021”, No. 309, (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2021), available at https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/104656/err-309.pdf?v=2807.8.
  21. National Low Income Housing Coalition, "The Gap: A Shortage of Affordable Homes" (2023), available at https://nlihc.org/gap.
  22. Federal Deposit Insurance Commission, Custom Data Table Tool: Alternative financial services, (FDIC, 2023), available at hhttps://www.fdic.gov/analysis/household-survey/.
  23. United States Census Bureau, Percent Distribution of Household Net Worth, by Amount of Net Worth and Selected Characteristics: Survey of Income and Program Participation, (U.S. Department of Commerce, 2022), available at https://www.census.gov/topics/income-poverty/wealth/data/tables.All.List_2110684178.html#list-tab-List_2110684178.

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