Let's take a look at the poorest towns in each state. After my poorest county video people
kept saying that they're all going to be in the southern states and that the South has the most
poverty in their counties and their towns and I started thinking about it and I thought we could
do a video on the poorest towns according to the American Community survey from the
U.S census figured we'd look at all the states and break it down by region a little side note
about small towns with a great deal of poverty poverty doesn't mean the people are horrible
people the town in most cases just doesn't have enough good paying jobs a legit industry or a
decent commercial District or area if you're from a small town or you've gone and stayed in a small
town you know exactly what I'm talking about if you ever want to help out a town that I mentioned
on a video spend some time there get fuel there on a road trip stop and eat at a local Diner go
into the shops do a little antiquing put some money into the local economy I try every time
I'm on a road trip to stop at someplace like that instead of some big city if it's a you
know couple miles off the road I don't mind doing doing that I'll go out of my way a little bit to
see a small town been doing it for years I know YouTube creators don't do meetups anymore that
used to be a trend back in the day that they'd meet up with their subscribers at a location if
I ever did one I'd do it like in a small town in a small town Brewery or something like that but back
to this video instead of doing an hour-long video we thought we'd break it up by region and just so
you know region maps differ in a lot of different ways there's several of them there's not just one
Regional map as an example Texas Oklahoma West Virginia Maryland and Delaware are part of the
south on some maps other maps have Texas Oklahoma as part of the west or Southwest if there's a
state that can be included in another region we'll adjust accordingly so we don't have regions with
20 States and another one that's got five today's video has ten got it get it good let's take a look
number 10 Jonesville Virginia Jonesville soughts Heyday in the late 19th century and early 20th
century like most towns in the central Appalachian region it slowly slipped into an economic decline
as the coal industry slowed around the 1950s by the 1990s this place was a commercial Ghost
Town the biggest thing going on in Jonesville it's not even in Jonesville it's outside of town about
eight miles down the road and that's a prison stats for prisons do affect cities and towns
but this one isn't within the city limits so it'll affect the county but not the town of Jonesville
this town sucks on its own I will give it one thing it doesn't look horrible it's not a bad
looking small town I mean for one with really high amount of poverty it doesn't look that bad they
have a population of about 1300 residents their median household income is 15 691 48 of the town's
residents live below the poverty line that's about a half that's crazy if you want to buy a home here
good news it's dirt cheap but realistically you could find a lot of nice homes here for
or under a hundred thousand I'd say 150 000 is a good number to be shooting for but they have
really nice ones that would go for like eight hundred thousand in Oregon or something like
that that are going for three and four hundred thousand if you're looking for it on a map it's
about 40 minutes west of Kingsport Tennessee and about an hour east of Middleboro Kentucky
number nine Jamestown Tennessee Jamestown sits about an hour and a half Northwest of Knoxville
this is an interesting little town before Jamestown was founded the area was known
as Sand Springs because it had a whole bunch of Springs around the place actually the last
remaining spring is located in Mark Twain Park just Northeast of the County Courthouse that
spring was actually the water source for John M Clemens the father of Samuel L Clemens or
Mark Twain this was obviously before they moved to Missouri John Clemens Mark Twain's father actually
served as the First Circuit Court Clerk and he drew up the plans for the first courthouse and
jail in this town yeah what's really strange about this town is it kind of looks old and a
lot of it has to do with the amazing masonry that all the buildings downtown are made out
of you kind of look at it and go this town needs an upgrade but when you look closer it's a very
clean little town for a town just flooded with poverty it is very clean nice Town it just got
a weird look to it like it needs to be updated a little bit but it's still clean I don't know
it's weird look for yourself the median household income here is only seventeen thousand and fifty
one dollars forty three point nine percent of the Town lives below the poverty line and you can get
a house here the media and the home value is sixty nine thousand I think that number is artificially
low because they have a lot of uh open lots for sale which I think is bringing down the
median home value realistically to get something decent you're probably looking at about 175 to 260
000 somewhere in that area we'll get you something nice and the cool thing about this area is most
pieces of property are going to come with an acre or two at least unless it's like downtown then
obviously that's a different story this is a nice looking small town it just has a lot of poverty
number eight Allendale South Carolina this is a community on the decline Allendale is the poorest
town in the poorest county in the Palmetto State this town is freaking circus I mean besides all
the different problems they have with poverty and everything like that we'll get to that in a second
the school district has been taken over by the state a few times the state has to help out with
the police department with basic law enforcement and they almost had a fight at a city council
meeting recently yeah not even kidding I'd like to tell you it was a couple of the residents maybe a
couple parents didn't like something going on that seems to be the norm for City Council meetings
these days and school board meetings but no this was the mayor and the council person she got angry
because he told her to shut up which he probably shouldn't have so she started yelling at him he
kept banging his gavel continually saying it shut up shut up shut up over and over and over like I
said the town's a circus they're median household income is about 18 680 South Carolina's median
household income is fifty four thousand 37 point seven percent of this population lives below the
poverty line and the median home value is thirty nine thousand three hundred dollars when it comes
to home to home buying here there isn't much that is over a hundred thousand dollars they've got
one home going for 799 000 so 800 000. it comes with six acres at a pool and all kinds of crazy
stuff it's like someone hit the lottery here and now I sell their house five years later because
they don't spend all their money they only have a population of two thousand nine hundred and fifty
three that was at the 2020 census and it's been on a steep decline in the last few census since
2010 they lost 20 percent of their population so in 2030 I'm sure you're gonna see it below 2000. I
almost guarantee number seven Scotland Neck North Carolina Scotland Neck is not a place you want to
live and actually that's kind of a theme for this place because they've been losing population since
the 1960s not even kidding every single census they've lost between 12 and 3 percent most
recently they lost about 11 if you're looking for it on a map don't bother it's not worth it
but I'm gonna tell you where it is anyway Scotland next it's about an hour and a half east of Raleigh
North Carolina about 40 minutes Northeast of Rocky Mount North Carolina the median household income
here is 15 404. 43 percent of their population lives below the poverty line North Carolina's
average or their poverty rate is 14 so these guys are knocking it out of the park median home value
here is about 65 900 where the median for the rest of the state is 182 000. now this is another one
that has an artificially low median home price it's actually sixty five thousand nine hundred
dollars that that's because they have a lot of lots for sale that are going for ten thousand
dollars and stuff like that so their median is kind of screwed up realistically if you want to
buy something here it's going to be over 200 200 250 000. they go up from there but that's
about the base this is another place that's losing population they only have 1770 residents right now
number six Rosedale Mississippi Hey look it's our old friend Mississippi you know they never
seem to show up on these uh poverty lists it's so weird that they're here Rosedale Mississippi
sits along the Mississippi River right across from Arkansas and about 25 minutes west of
Cleveland Mississippi we've talked about this area recently don't move here their downtown reminds
me of a post-apocalyptic movie like remember those Discovery Channel they used to have like
three weeks after all mankind is dead what the city would look like and stuff like that's what
their downtown looks like if you catch it on the right moment with no cars on the road you're all
yeah I'm in The Walking Dead there's gonna be zombies coming out of that store right there
the good news is you got the Mississippi River right there so you can always go fish for your
dinner and I'm sure more than a few people do this all the time the median household income here is
fifteen thousand one hundred thirty dollars in Mississippi they're pretty low already but their
media and household income is forty six thousand five hundred eleven dollars fifty Seven point
one percent of this population lives below the poverty line I mean Mississippi is pretty high
already with 19.6 these people are trying to win a competition with their poverty rate it looks
like now this is really strange normally I'll go to Zillow or Redfin and look at what the prices
are going because I'll give you the median price which is the technical term and what real estate
agents and economists look at but I like to give you guys what's being sold around there right
now the median home value is 86 900 Mississippi the median home value is about 125 000. there's
nothing for sale right now there hasn't been anything sold in this town in five years five
years nobody's left nobody's come in right now they have a population of about 1855 residents and
surprise surprise they've had a losing population four census in a row since 1980 census was last
time they gained population and they gained pretty steady prior that the 1990 census they lost seven
percent two thousand seven percent and then in 2010 they knocked it out the bark they lost 22
percent of their population and in the 2020 census they they lost 15 percent losing that many people
they were either renters or they just abandoned their home and nobody bought it number five urania
Louisiana urania Louisiana besides having all kinds of jokes floating around my head just by
saying urania trying to be a mature adult but in reality I have the sense of humor of a 17 year
old boy a very immature 17 year old boy the good news at this age I have a little more control and
I'm not letting that joke out or all 12 of them have written down since I saw the word urania
uranius hits about 45 minutes north of Alexandria and it's got a couple cool things here the first
thing is they got a good sized Medical Center for such a small place then they have a correctional
facility they have a lumber mill which is a good size especially for a small community like this
they also have a bioenergy plant and like any good Town rock in a serious amount of poverty
they got the train tracks running straight through town splitting the place in half the
median household income in urania is 12 358 the median household income for all Louisiana is 50
000. poverty rate about 40.4 percent of their population lives below the poverty line
18.6 for the entire state of Louisiana they're pretty bad just like Mississippi you want to
buy a house here the median home value is 48 000. this one again hasn't sold anything in a long time
and thing for sale right now it's a decent looking home three bedroom three bath and it's going for
three hundred thirty thousand dollars but this house looks really nice so I think it's an oddity
now this is weird about their population so since 1960 they had been losing population
and it was going down 5 17 to 7 10. and finally in 2010 they gained 87 percent they went from
700 residents to 1300 residents uh but they had a reversal of Fortune I guess because in 2020
they went down to 698 they lost 46.8 percent of their population not a great place to be living
number four Pahokee Florida Pahokee sits on Lake Okeechobee which that sounds like I'm getting
ready to tell you some kind of riddle or something like that but no this is a real place the lake and
the town it is west of West Palm Beach Florida and north of another wonderful Florida Town Bell Glade
both these places suck but Pahokee being a little bit worse this isn't one of the vacation towns of
Florida they have so many this is definitely not one of them even though it's on a lake I mean the
only person that ever shows up here is probably looking for someone that jumped bail the median
household income in Pahokee is 19 587. 44.6 percent of their population lives below the
poverty line all of Florida it's 13.3 percent the median home value here is 305 100 that's
expensive for a place that kind of blows they do have a population of about 1100 residents they've
been losing population since the 1990s when it comes to buying a home here it's all over the
map now they say it's like 300 and five thousand buy a home here but they actually have one right
now it's kind of run down but looks livable ninety five thousand dollars but they got some other ones
that are going for like 250 189 000 and 480 000. so they're all over the map number three cordial
Georgia cordial is a pretty good place if you like watching trains after that there's not much to
this place cordial has three different lines that run through town which is kind of a rarity unless
it's a giant City they usually don't get that kind of train action they actually have a little uh
Train park there where you could watch the trains go by cordial isn't a small town it's actually
pretty good size it's got 10 000 residents but it seems like a lot more because it's kind of a big
Community a lot of uh properties are just outside of town sadly this is a good looking Town that's
not the sad part the sad part is their downtown has a lot of empty shops that's kind of happening
throughout the country right now especially in the midwest in the South a lot of these small towns
just have all kinds of commercial spots that are just vacant about 49.7 of the population
lives below the poverty line here in the median household income is only twenty thousand three
hundred and fifty dollars the median home value here is about 81 600 that's a little
a little low but it's not hard to find a house here for about 130 140 000 that'll get you a
nice livable home it's not like it's got bars on the windows or anything like that it's decent
number two Livingston Alabama Livingston is in between Tuscaloosa Alabama and Meridian
Mississippi being closer to Meridian about an hour away now this town isn't all bad they do
have the University of West Alabama here that's decent I guess the worst part about living here
is the fact that the nearest Big City for you is Meridian Mississippi the median household income
in Livingston Alabama is 16 621 that's not a lot of money 47.3 percent of the population here lives
below the poverty line for all of Alabama it's actually 16 and the median home value is about 129
000. as far as houses go here realistically you're looking at under a hundred thousand to buy a home
and they've got a decent one now for 83 000 and then they got one yeah you just don't want it
it's for forty thousand this is a strange one for this list I know we're not focusing on crime but I
noticed that the crime rate here is actually 23 percent lower than the national average
outstanding Livingston I mean these people people it the poverty has wrecked this place and their
property crime that's actually 35 percent lower than the national average it's not bad so it's
like the 3200 residents that live here they get to live uh without fear of having their stuff stolen
all right before we get to number one don't forget we have another Channel
called on this day there's a link down below all right on to number one
and number one Mariana Arkansas Mariana sits about an hour and a half east of Little Rock Arkansas a
little west of the Mississippi River Marianna may not be the best place to live in the world
but it does have the best barbecue no kidding Jones barbecue it's like the only restaurant in
Arkansas to ever win the James Beard award it's been there over 100 years the grandson now runs
it they smoke enough pork for one day and if you get there late and they've run out that's it too
bad you got to come back again tomorrow if you want to try but that's about the bright spot of
this town the median household income here is 16 709 that's not much the poverty rate here
is 40 40 of the population here lives below the poverty line and the median home value is seventy
thousand nine hundred and twelve dollars the rest Arkansas isn't knocking it out of the park with
real estate prices but it's 133 000. they have a population of 3472 and that means 3472 people
have a chance to eat at Jones barbecue you every single day alright that's today's video hope you
guys enjoyed it hope you got some information out of it now if you like this video make sure you
give it a big thumbs up and also let me know in the comment section below what region in
the United States you'd like to see next alright everybody have a great day be nice to each other