South Dakota Searchlight reports that poverty was declining nationwide and in 38 states in 2024, the last year that America had a real President. Nationwide, 10.6% of Americans were below the poverty line. Poverty has been trending downward since 2010, following decade of increasing poverty under the Bush II administration and a surge above 15% following the Great Recession.
South Dakota’s poverty rate in America’s last decent year was 10.4%, a couple ticks below the national average. Minnesota’s poverty rate was even lower at 9.3%.
| State | Poverty Rate 2024 | Food Stamp Use May 2025 |
| Minnesota | 9.3% | 7.8% |
| Wyoming | 10.1% | 4.6% |
| Montana | 10.2% | 7.1% |
| South Dakota | 10.4% | 8.1% |
| Nebraska | 10.9% | 7.5% |
| North Dakota | 11.1% | 7.2% |
| Iowa | 11.3% | 8.2% |
In our seven-state region, South Dakota’s poverty rate is the median, while South Dakota’s rate of food-stamp usage is second highest, behind only Iowa.
The food-stamp figures will go down as the current dictator slashes help for anyone but his fellow wealthy elites, but poverty will likely go up:
The decrease in the national poverty rate, from 11% in 2023 to 10.6% last year, could be short-lived, said Joseph Llobrera, director of research for food assistance at the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Llobrera predicted that looming federal cuts to SNAP and Medicaid, also part of Trump’s domestic policy law, will increase the number of people who can’t afford food and other basic needs. “People’s resources are going to be strained in many ways in the years to come,” Llobrera said [Tim Henderson, “Poverty Dropped in Most States Last Year, But Trend Could Reverse as Cuts Loom,” South Dakota Searchlight, 2025.09.11].
Oxfam agrees that we’re making America impoverished again:
…instead of investing in programs proven to reduce poverty and inequality, President Trump and Republicans in Congress have done the exact opposite. They passed an unconscionable tax bill that slashes funding for Medicaid and food assistance while giving those in the top 0.1% of earners a $311,000 tax handout in just a single year.
Poverty rates and inequality are already too high, but they would certainly be far higher if programs like Medicaid and food assistance were not in place. Unless policymakers reverse President Trump’s catastrophic cuts, we should expect increased poverty, hunger and sickness in the years to come, all while the ultra-rich only get richer [Oxfam, press release, 2025.09.09].
Maybe Trump could lower the poverty rate by deporting poor people….