2011 State Poverty Data Underscore the Need to Protect Programs
for Low-Income Women New data from the Census was just released,
and NWLC’s calculations show that many women and their families
around the country are still struggling in the wake of the great
recession. Though poverty stabilized between 2010 and 2011,
protecting low income programs remains absolutely critical for
women. In 2011, more than one in five women was poor in
Mississippi (22.3 percent) and Louisiana (20.6 percent). Only
one state, New Hampshire, had a poverty rate of less than ten
percent for women, at 8.9 percent. In the other 47 states and
the District of Columbia, between 10 and 20 percent of women
lived below the poverty line. In 2011, more than half of female-
headed families with children were poor in Kentucky (51.3
percent), Louisiana (50.3 percent), Mississippi (51.8 percent),
and West Virginia (51.6 percent). In eight more states (AL, AR,
ID, MI, NM, OH, SC, and TN), their poverty rates were 45 percent
and above. What about wom