Like all states, Arizona has certain places that are going on hard times. These Arizona places have an above-average percentage of people living in poverty, out of work, or not making as much as they should be.
Even as the economy continues to improve, it’s worthwhile to look at the places in each state struggling to make ends meet. So we set our sites on locating the poorest places in Arizona.
To do so, we used Saturday Night Science to analyze the newest Census data from the American Community Survey for the 56 cities in Arizona with more than 5,000 people.
$42,019 median income · 27.8% poverty · #1 lowest income in Arizona
Located in
Cochise County, Arizona
Douglas, unfortunately, ranks as the poorest place in Arizona thanks to combination of low pay and and a lack of jobs.
The city of 15,981 people averages the lowest median household income in Arizona and the 3rd highest poverty rate. At the very least, the cost of living ranks in the bottom 15% of place in the state, so things like housing are relatively affordable.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$43,214 median income · 28.0% poverty · #2 lowest income in Arizona
Located in
Santa Cruz County, Arizona
The second poorest city in Arizona is Nogales.
The city ranks as having the 2nd highest incidence of poverty and 2nd lowest median household income. However, the unemployment rate ‘only’ ranks as the highest in the Grand Canyon State.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$51,354 median income · 27.1% poverty · #6 lowest income in Arizona
Located in
Maricopa County, Arizona
Placing as the third poorest city, Guadalupe’s median income ranks as the 6th lowest.
And that’s a sign that there’s a relatively substantial jump in the quality of the economy from second to third place on our list. The poverty rate is 27.1% and ranks near the bottom of places in the state.
But what makes up for the relatively low incomes of the city is its low cost of living. The income you do make here goes further than in most parts of the Grand Canyon State.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$58,346 median income · 29.8% poverty · #9 lowest income in Arizona
Located in
Navajo County, Arizona
Winslow ranks as the fourth poorest place in Arizona.
The town ranks as having the 9th lowest median household income and the highest incidence of poverty in the state.
That being said, there’s still a ton of cultural diversity in the city as it hosts many events throughout the year.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$55,736 median income · 23.1% poverty · #7 lowest income in Arizona
Located in
Pinal County, Arizona
The fifth poorest city in Arizona is Eloy.
The city ranks as having the 7th lowest median income in the state. However, an extremely low cost of living prevents a good number of folks from living in poverty as the poverty rate only ranks as the 5th highest in Arizona.
Still not the best news for Eloy.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$48,448 median income · 18.6% poverty · #3 lowest income in Arizona
Located in
Yavapai County, Arizona
Cottonwood ranks as the sixth poorest place in the Grand Canyon State.
It ranks as having the 9th highest incidence of poverty and the 47th highest unemployment rate.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$50,556 median income · 18.7% poverty · #5 lowest income in Arizona
Bullhead City places as the seventh poorest city in Arizona.
The city of over 42,496 ranks as having the 8th highest incidence of poverty in the state. However, it has a very low cost of living which helps to pay the bills each month.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$57,073 median income · 18.9% poverty · #8 lowest income in Arizona
Located in
Pima County, Arizona
Tucson ranks as the eighth poorest city in Arizona.
The big issue for the town is the unemployment rate which ranks as one of the highest in the state.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers | Compare
$59,400 median income · 18.1% poverty · #10 lowest income in Arizona
Located in
Yuma County, Arizona
San Luis couldn’t stay out of the top ten poorest places in Arizona; it ranks number 9.
While the median income is the 10th lowest, there are a substantial number of people that live below the poverty line. Overall, San Luis ranks as having the 11th most people living in poverty of all the places we analyzed in Arizona.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$59,626 median income · 18.0% poverty · #11 lowest income in Arizona
Located in
Maricopa County, Arizona
And rounding out the top ten poorest cities in Arizona is Tolleson.
The city of 7,668 people ranks in the bottom 20% for both median income and poverty rate in the Grand Canyon State.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is Arizona’s statewide median.
Arizona statewide median: $79,964
Arizona statewide median: 12.5%
Arizona statewide median: 5.1%
On the map
Where poverty hits hardest in Arizona
Saturday Night Science
How we determined the poorest places in Arizona for 2026
The first thing that comes to most people’s minds when they think about determining the poorest places is to simply the poverty rate. That is, the number of people living below a federally established level of income for a household of a certain size.
However, we don’t think that one statistic wholly encompasses what it means to be one of the “poorest places”. So we used Saturday Night Science to look at this set of criteria from the newly released 2020-2024 American Community Survey:
- Poverty Level
- Median Household Income
After we collected the data for all 56 places with more than 5,000 people in Arizona, we ranked each place from 1 to 56 for each of the criteria, with 1 being the poorest.
We then averaged all the rankings for a place into a “Poor Score” with the place having the lowest overall Poor Score, Douglas, crowned the “Poorest Place In Arizona For 2026”. The median Arizona home is 32 years old — old enough that it pays to compare home warranty plans before something expensive breaks.
The full plate
Detailed list of the poorest places to live in Arizona
Click any column to sort. Search by city name.
| Rank | City | Poor Score | Population | Median income | Poverty | Unemployment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Douglas | 2.00 | 15,981 | $42,019 | 27.8% | 12.3% |
| 2 | Nogales | 2.00 | 19,841 | $43,214 | 28.0% | 15.7% |
| 3 | Guadalupe | 5.00 | 5,272 | $51,354 | 27.1% | 4.5% |
| 4 | Winslow | 5.00 | 8,773 | $58,346 | 29.8% | 8.9% |
| 5 | Eloy | 6.00 | 17,433 | $55,736 | 23.1% | 6.2% |
| 6 | Cottonwood | 6.00 | 12,580 | $48,448 | 18.6% | 3.1% |
| 7 | Bullhead City | 6.50 | 42,496 | $50,556 | 18.7% | 11.5% |
| 8 | Tucson | 7.50 | 547,073 | $57,073 | 18.9% | 6.2% |
| 9 | San Luis | 10.50 | 37,337 | $59,400 | 18.1% | 8.0% |
| 10 | Tolleson | 11.50 | 7,668 | $59,626 | 18.0% | 2.4% |
| 11 | Coolidge | 12.00 | 16,636 | $67,023 | 19.9% | 14.1% |
| 12 | Yuma | 15.50 | 100,139 | $65,482 | 15.5% | 6.3% |
| 13 | Kingman | 16.50 | 34,375 | $61,792 | 14.3% | 6.7% |
| 14 | Benson | 16.50 | 5,417 | $49,346 | 12.1% | 8.7% |
| 15 | Globe | 17.50 | 7,195 | $69,170 | 16.4% | 3.0% |
| 16 | Safford | 18.00 | 10,239 | $65,647 | 14.1% | 4.3% |
| 17 | Flagstaff | 19.00 | 76,445 | $71,512 | 18.2% | 5.7% |
| 18 | Camp Verde | 19.50 | 12,521 | $69,203 | 15.5% | 5.8% |
| 19 | Show Low | 20.00 | 12,102 | $60,368 | 12.2% | 4.7% |
| 20 | Lake Havasu City | 22.50 | 58,359 | $70,148 | 14.1% | 5.0% |
| 21 | Wickenburg | 22.50 | 8,059 | $67,600 | 12.9% | 0.4% |
| 22 | Glendale | 23.00 | 252,833 | $73,530 | 15.1% | 5.6% |
| 23 | Chino Valley | 24.00 | 13,602 | $61,237 | 11.4% | 5.3% |
| 24 | Casa Grande | 24.50 | 60,905 | $69,983 | 13.5% | 6.1% |
| 25 | Tempe | 25.00 | 188,065 | $79,663 | 15.8% | 5.5% |
| 26 | Apache Junction | 25.50 | 41,058 | $60,975 | 10.6% | 6.5% |
| 27 | Sedona | 25.50 | 9,777 | $73,738 | 14.0% | 6.2% |
| 28 | Somerton | 27.00 | 14,574 | $74,015 | 13.8% | 3.7% |
| 29 | Snowflake | 27.50 | 6,444 | $76,174 | 14.0% | 2.5% |
| 30 | Payson | 27.50 | 16,622 | $67,710 | 11.0% | 7.1% |
| 31 | Sierra Vista | 28.50 | 45,155 | $70,291 | 12.0% | 4.8% |
| 32 | Prescott | 29.50 | 47,400 | $70,874 | 11.7% | 4.5% |
| 33 | Youn | 30.00 | 7,015 | $68,321 | 10.4% | 3.1% |
| 34 | Phoenix | 30.50 | 1,642,323 | $81,332 | 13.7% | 5.0% |
| 35 | El Mirage | 30.50 | 36,088 | $78,050 | 12.5% | 5.8% |
| 36 | Prescott Valley | 32.50 | 49,179 | $74,569 | 11.7% | 2.8% |
| 37 | Thatcher | 34.50 | 5,439 | $82,917 | 12.1% | 4.6% |
| 38 | Avondale | 38.00 | 92,477 | $86,123 | 10.9% | 3.6% |
| 39 | Mesa | 39.00 | 511,764 | $82,752 | 10.3% | 4.2% |
| 40 | Page | 39.00 | 7,345 | $88,826 | 10.6% | 3.3% |
| 41 | Florence | 41.50 | 25,570 | $79,644 | 6.9% | 6.6% |
| 42 | Surprise | 42.50 | 154,948 | $96,711 | 8.6% | 4.3% |
| 43 | Peoria | 42.50 | 196,906 | $95,815 | 8.4% | 4.0% |
| 44 | Maricopa | 44.00 | 67,163 | $96,391 | 7.4% | 5.0% |
| 45 | Sahuarita | 44.00 | 35,862 | $104,680 | 8.6% | 6.4% |
| 46 | Chandler | 46.50 | 280,136 | $108,095 | 7.9% | 3.6% |
| 47 | Cave Creek | 47.00 | 5,091 | $107,067 | 7.2% | 2.7% |
| 48 | Scottsdale | 48.00 | 243,821 | $110,886 | 7.3% | 3.6% |
| 49 | Oro Valley | 48.50 | 48,162 | $107,117 | 6.5% | 2.3% |
| 50 | Goodyear | 49.00 | 107,645 | $103,319 | 5.2% | 4.2% |
| 51 | Fountain Hills | 51.00 | 23,789 | $112,654 | 6.2% | 5.3% |
| 52 | Gilbert | 52.50 | 280,262 | $122,551 | 5.3% | 3.5% |
| 53 | Marana | 52.50 | 56,938 | $112,606 | 4.9% | 4.5% |
| 54 | Paradise Valley | 53.50 | 12,611 | $247,159 | 5.5% | 2.1% |
| 55 | Litchfield Park | 54.50 | 6,916 | $126,250 | 3.9% | 3.4% |
| 56 | Queen Creek | 55.50 | 71,867 | $141,978 | 3.7% | 4.3% |
Source: U.S. Census ACS 2020-2024. 56 cities with more than 5,000 residents.
Summary
The poorest cities in Arizona for 2026
Like we said earlier, when we set out to identify the poorest places in Arizona, we weren’t sure what we’d encounter, but it ended up being some of the best places to live in Arizona.
When you look at the data, the cities and places mentioned above meet the criteria for being at the very bottom of the income ladder for everyone that lives there. Not sold on Arizona? Take the two-minute Find Your Place quiz and see which state actually fits you.
