Which US State Has The Lowest Average Income?

Average income can be broken up in two ways; per person and per household. Per person calculations often use the official yardstick of per capita personal income. This adds up all of the earnings in a state over the course of a year and divides the total by the number of residents. Using this measure, Mississippi ranks the lowest, at about $52,017 in 2024, per March 2025 data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. When compared with other areas in America, this per-person income data showed significant disparities. The District of Columbia, for example, was the highest at about $108,233. Next were Massachusetts at $93,927 and Connecticut at $93,235, states with some of the highest electricity bills in America. Other states near the upper range included New York at $85,733 and California at $85,518. At the other end with Mississippi was West Virginia at $55,138 and New Mexico at $57,652.

If, on the other hand, you define average income by median household income, which arranges all households — families and non-families — from lowest to highest income in order to identify the household in the middle, Mississippi is still last. The state boasted a median household income of only about $54,203 in 2023, according to the Census Bureau's American Community Survey.

Mississippi's wages are well below the national average. In Q4 2024, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the average worker in Mississippi earned about $1,023 per week, while the U.S. average was about $1,507, a difference of 32%. This is the lowest state wage and helps to explain why Mississippi ranks last in average income measures. Mississippi's lower pay is ultimately tied to its problematic job market — the state has fewer large, high-paying job hubs than most states. Its two largest counties hold only about 16.9% of all jobs in the state, while the 369 biggest counties nationwide hold around 73.3% of all U.S. jobs, per BLS data. Pay in Mississippi's main metro is lower, too. As of May 2024, workers in the Jackson area earned about $25.86 an hour, compared with $32.66 across the country.

With that said, the price of housing does somewhat compensates for the lower paychecks. The Bureau of Economic Analysis reported a 2023 housing-rent index of 54.9, with 100 representing the U.S. average. That means an apartment renting for $1,500 in one state would only cost about $825 in Mississippi. Also, Mississippi's overall cost index was 87.3. In fact, Mississippi is one of the cheapest states to buy a house, and is also one of the states with the cheapest assisted living costs for seniors.