10 U.S. states where Americans earn the lowest incomes—only 2 aren’t in the South

Throughout the U.S., workers earn a median annual wage of about $48,080, according to the latest available data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But in the three states where workers earn the least, the median annual wage sits below $40,000 a year. And notably, all but two of the 10 lowest-earning states are in the South.

Check out the map below to see the median wage in every U.S. state.

Mississippi has the lowest-earning population in the U.S. with a median annual wage of just $37,500, according to the BLS. 

That’s due, in part, to the fact that Mississippi has one of the least-educated populations in the country, with just 1 in 4 adults in the state holding a bachelor’s degree or higher, according to St. Louis Fed data.

More education typically correlates with higher earnings, which helps explain why Massachusetts — the most-educated state, with nearly 47% of its population holding a bachelor’s degree or higher — is also the highest-paid, according to the St. Louis Fed.

A well-educated workforce can help attract businesses to the area and boost economic activity. That’s part of the reason Mississippi ranks among some of the worst states for business, according to CNBC.

These are the 10 states with the lowest median annual wages.

Though the local incomes are low compared with the rest of the country, the cost of living is relatively cheap in most of these states, according to the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center state-by-state cost of living index, based on Council for Community and Economic Research survey data. Oklahoma ranks as the state with the cheapest cost of living, according to MERIC, with Mississippi coming in at No. 2.

Though most of the states with the lowest wages are among the cheapest to live in, New Mexico and South Carolina are somewhat outliers by this metric. New Mexico ranks as the 20th lowest in terms of cost of living, and South Carolina falls right around the middle of all states, according to MERIC’s analysis. 

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