These Louisiana Cities Are Among The Neediest In The Country

Many people in the United States will face financial hardships at some point in their lives, whether it's homelessness, food insecurity, or poverty. Some cities have been hit harder by the pandemic while others have experienced these hardships for a lot longer.

A new study by WalletHub compiled a list of more than 180 cities, including the 150 most populated cities in the country, to determine which were facing the most poverty-driven hardships. Louisiana had a few cities make the cut, with one being named to the top 10.

Here are the Louisiana cities ranked as the country's "neediest" in 2021.

• New Orleans (9)
• Shreveport (25)
• Baton Rouge (29)

While Shreveport ranked lower on the health and safety factors, New Orleans came in second for the highest food insecurity rate of all the cities on the list.

The top five cities on the list are Detroit, Michigan; Brownsville, Texas; Cleveland, Ohio; Memphis, Tennessee; and Laredo, Texas.

To determine the list, WalletHub compared 182 cities across the country using two factors: economic well-being and health and safety. These factors were then evaluated using 28 relevant metrics, including child and adult poverty rate, unemployment rate, homelessness rate, presence of homeless criminalization laws, foreclosure rate, high school drop out rate, food insecurity rate, share of depressed adults, suicide rate, crime rate, and more.

Check out the full list of cities here.

Photo: Getty Images