Over the past two years, economic instability has affected millions of individuals across America with 11.4% of the country living in poverty in 2020. Depending on where you live, economic uncertainty can be even higher in some communities than in others.
Measuring the amount of economic disadvantage, such as child poverty and food insecurity, WalletHub compared more 180 cities to determine which are the "neediest" in the country, including several in Tennessee. One city in the Volunteer State even ranked in the Top 15.
These are the Tennessee cities considered to be some of the neediest in the country:
- No. 14: Memphis
- No. 21: Chattanooga
- No. 58: Knoxville
- No. 86: Nashville
While all the Tennessee cities on the list rank in the top half of the list, Memphis came in as the neediest city in the entire state and ranking in the Top 15 overall.
Here are the Top 10 neediest cities in America, according to the list:
- Detroit, Michigan
- Brownsville, Texas
- Cleveland, Ohio
- Fresno, California
- Gulfport, Mississippi
- Los Angeles, California
- Newark, New Jersey
- Baltimore, Maryland
- New Orleans, Louisiana
- St. Louis, Missouri
To determine the list, WalletHub compared 182 cities using two factors, economic well-being and health & safety. These factors were then evaluated across 28 relevant metrics, including child poverty rate, unemployment rate, homelessness rate, median credit score, high school dropout rate, food insecurity rate, share of depressed adults, crime rate and many more.
Check out the full report here.