According to the Census Bureau, more than 630,000 Oklahomans (17.2 percent of the state) had earnings below the poverty line in 2017.
South Carolina has seen some difficult years recently. One in six South Carolinians lived in poverty in 2000; one in five did so in 2012. Almost 300,000 people lived below the poverty level at that time.
Louisiana would have had the largest proportion of residents living in poverty at nearly 20% if it weren't for Mississippi and New Mexico.
Yet, that 20 percent rate has unhappily remained constant over the past ten years, meaning that the poor are not getting poorer. Nonetheless, New Orleans (28.7%) and Baton Rouge have substantially greater poverty rates (26.7 percent).
The good news is that between 2011 and 2012, Tennessee's unemployment rate significantly decreased, falling by 1.3 percent in just one year. The bad news is that it increased to 8.5 percent in 2013 even though manufacturing increased.
The only state in the top 10 poorest states that is not in the South is New Mexico.
A six-figure increase from 2000 when the poverty rate was 18.6%, 426,000 New Mexicans (20.8 percent of the state's population) were living in poverty.
In Kentucky, more than one-fourth of children were living in poverty in 2012. Child poverty jumped from 23.5 percent in 2008 to 26.5 percent, according to census data.
Alabama's median income has routinely lagged the rest of the nation by $10,000 or more over the past seven years.
In West Virginia, the past year was particularly difficult for African-Americans. Their poverty rate was 37.4 percent, which was over 20 points more than the state average (17.8 percent).
The median household income in the state increased to $40,112 from $38,758 last year, breaking the $40,000 barrier for the first time since 2008.
With a median household income of just $37,095, the Magnolia State is the most impoverished in the Country. (That is almost half what the wealthiest state, Maryland, has).
Mississippi still has the sixth-highest unemployment rate after creating 25,000 jobs. More than one in three children live in poverty in this country, which has the highest rate of poverty in the country (24.2%).