Here Are the Top 10 Poorest Counties in New York State [List]
According to the Chamber of Commerce, New York is the third richest state in the United States. New York City has more millionaires that call it home than any other city in the world. Almost one million millionaires live in NYC in 2018, according to a report released by Wealth-X.
However, even with all of the wealth in New York, there's lots of poverty to go around.
2 of the richest states, New York and Alaska, have higher poverty rates than one would expect, indicating an above-average wealth inequality gap between the states’ richest and poorest citizens. ~ Chamber of Commerce
The average three-year poverty rate for New York State from 2018 to 2020 was 11.8 percent. All of the counties in the top 10 have a poverty rate significantly higher than the state's rate. The poorest counties in New York are spread around the state, including Western New York, the North Country, Southern Tier, and New York City. As a matter of fact, two of the counties with the highest poverty rates are in NYC, even though tons of wealthy people call the Big Apple home. There are really rural areas in the top 10, as well as urban areas.
According to a report from the Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy, the poverty rates in New York really affect children,
Over 2 million New Yorkers, including 712,000 children, lived in poverty in 2019. New York children are more likely to live in poverty than in 32 other states, with 18% (nearly one in five) experiencing poverty in 2019. Due to structural and systemic racism, child poverty among New York State children of color approaches 30% and Black or African American children are more than twice as likely to live in poverty than their Non-Hispanic White peers.
Of the 62 counties in New York State, these are the counties in New York with the top 10 poverty rates, according to data from 2019.