With the giving season reminding us to be selfless and around 11.1% of the U.S. population living in poverty, the personal-finance website WalletHub today followed up on its recent report on the Most Charitable States for 2025 with an in-depth look at the Neediest Cities in America, as well as expert commentary.
Hoping to inspire goodwill toward the less fortunate, WalletHub compared more than 180 U.S. cities across 28 key metrics to determine where Americans are most economically disadvantaged. The data set includes factors like the child poverty rate, food insecurity rate and uninsured rate.
| Neediest Cities in America | |
| 1. Detroit, MI | 11. St. Louis, MO |
| 2. Gulfport, MS | 12. Fort Smith, AR |
| 3. Brownsville, TX | 13. Memphis, TN |
| 4. Cleveland, OH | 14. Philadelphia, PA |
| 5. Shreveport, LA | 15. Los Angeles, CA |
| 6. Laredo, TX | 16. Fresno, CA |
| 7. Augusta, GA | 17. Baton Rouge, LA |
| 8. New Orleans, LA | 18. Las Cruces, NM |
| 9. Corpus Christi, TX | 19. New York, NY |
| 10. Birmingham, AL | 20. Newark, NJ |
Key Stats
- Pearl City, Hawaii, has the lowest child poverty rate, which is 13.3 times lower than in Cleveland, Ohio, the city with the highest.
- Pearl City, Hawaii, has the lowest adult poverty rate, which is 6.2 times lower than in Detroit, the city with the highest.
- Overland Park, Kansas, has the fewest homeless persons (per 1,000 residents), which is 30.4 times fewer than in Honolulu, Hawaii, the city with the most.
- South Burlington and Burlington, Vermont, have the lowest unemployment rate, which is 4.4 times lower than in Detroit, the city with the highest.
- Pearl City, Hawaii, has the lowest share of uninsured residents, which is 11.8 times lower than in Brownsville, Texas, the city with the highest.
