Just went down a rabbit hole looking at income data across major US cities and it's pretty eye-opening. Turns out the poorest city in the united states varies wildly by state, but some patterns definitely emerge. Like, Birmingham, Alabama has a median household income around $42K with over 26% of residents below the poverty line. That's rough. Meanwhile, places like Kahului, Hawaii and South Fulton, Georgia are doing way better economically even though they're considered the poorest in their respective states. Reading, Pennsylvania and Canton, Ohio are hitting hard too - both showing poverty rates over 28-30%. What really struck me is how the poorest city in the united states picture changes depending on which state you're in. El Paso, Texas has nearly 680K people with median income around $55K. Greenville, Mississippi sits at just $35K median household income with over 32% poverty. The data's from Census Bureau surveys, so it's solid stuff. The poorest cities across the country share common threads - lower per capita income, higher unemployment indicators, and limited economic diversity usually. Some of these places have populations over 100K, which makes the economic struggle even more significant. Anyway, if you're curious about your state, there's definitely a poorest city in the united states ranking that might surprise you. The gaps between wealthy and struggling cities in the same state are sometimes massive.