Households Headed by Single Women Face Substantially Higher Poverty Rates

The most recent five-year estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey provide insights into the economic conditions facing, and resources available to, New Hampshire residents prior to the COVID-19 crisis. Levels of poverty were substantially elevated for single female-headed families. These families faced higher levels of poverty regardless of their identified race, ethnicity, number of children, education level, work status, or home ownership status compared to the overall level for all families. Notably, about 1 in 3 families that were headed by a single woman with at least one child under 5 years old lived in poverty in New Hampshire.