Pennsylvania

How Pennsylvania ranks among the states

At the end of 2019 Pennsylvania was the 11th most distressed state; today it is in the middle, and most of the drop came from jobs. Its yearly unemployment rate was 4.3% in both 2019 and 2025. But the U.S. rate climbed from 3.7% to 4.3%, so Pennsylvania’s rank went from 8th highest among the 50 states and D.C. to tied for 16th highest (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics). What keeps the score from falling further is renters’ housing costs, the highest of its four parts (see cost of living).

Pennsylvania’s score climbed while its jobless rate ranked high among the states, then fell back as other states’ rates rose to meet it

How is Pennsylvania’s economy doing? Unemployment is in line with the nation’s

On unemployment, about as well as the country. In August 2026, 3.7% of Pennsylvania’s labor force was out of work, tied for 23rd lowest among the 50 states and D.C., against 4.1% nationwide (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics); by the bureau’s test, that difference isn’t statistically significant. A year earlier the rate was 4.4%, a fall the bureau does count as significant. For the full year 2025, Pennsylvania’s rate matched the nation’s at 4.3%, after running above it every year from 2015 through 2023.

Filing a claim for unemployment benefits? That goes through the Pennsylvania labor department’s unemployment site →

Between 2019 and 2025 Pennsylvania’s yearly rate ended where it started while the nation’s rose to meet it, so a rate that once ranked high among the states became an ordinary one (see how it ranks). In 2024 Pennsylvania’s yearly average, 3.8%, was below the nation’s 4.0%.

Unemployment is highest in Cameron County and lowest in Centre County

Pennsylvania’s minimum wage is lower than in every state on its borders

Pennsylvania’s minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, the federal minimum. Every neighboring state sets a higher one for most workers, the U.S. Department of Labor’s table shows. A bill to raise Pennsylvania’s to $15 by 2029 passed the state House in March 2026 and hasn’t come to a vote in the Senate (see what to watch).

Which Pennsylvania counties are poorest, and which are most distressed?

Forest County, a small, wooded county in the northwest, is the poorest in Pennsylvania: in 2024, 22.8% of its people were below the poverty line, the highest rate of the state’s 67 counties, the Census Bureau estimates. Philadelphia County shares its borders and government with the City of Philadelphia. It has the second-highest poverty rate, 19.7%, and is the most distressed county on our County Distress Index. The index measures strained household budgets in every U.S. county; Philadelphia scores 91. No Pennsylvania county ranks among the 100 most distressed in the country (see the national list). Chester County, west of Philadelphia, is the least distressed, at 3.

Every county, by score

Only 2 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties score 80 or more: Philadelphia and Fayette, which together are home to 12.9% of the state’s people. Most counties fall between 30 and 70. Of the 8 counties that score 60 or more, 5 are in the northeast.

All 67 Pennsylvania counties, ranked →

Is Pennsylvania expensive to live in? Rent is below the U.S. median

For housing, less than the country as a whole. Half of Pennsylvania’s renters paid less than $1,209 a month in the Census Bureau’s 2020 to 2024 survey, 24th lowest among the 50 states and D.C., against a U.S. median of $1,413. A year of that rent came to 18.7% of the typical household’s income in 2024, against 20.8% for the U.S. (our calculation). We don’t hold prices for groceries, gas or power, and we have no city figures for Philadelphia or Pittsburgh, so this page can’t rank Pennsylvania’s full cost of living.

Even so, renters’ housing costs are the part of our score where Pennsylvania ranks highest. In 2024, 26.0% of its renter households paid half or more of their income for rent and utilities. That was just below 26.1% nationally but tied for 14th highest among states, because most states have a smaller share than the nation as a whole. Pennsylvania’s share rose each year from 2019 to 2024 in the Census figures published.

What changed in Pennsylvania in the past year

1. July 1, 2026

   PPL Electric’s higher rates took effect

   On June 4, Pennsylvania’s Public Utility Commission approved a settlement letting PPL Electric raise its yearly revenue by about $275 million, less than the company asked for. For a home using 918 kilowatt-hours a month, the commission projected the total bill would go from $177.01 to about $184.49 a month. PPL filed its new rates on June 30, and the commission confirmed on July 7 that they took effect on July 1. PPL serves eastern and central Pennsylvania.

   Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, June 4, 2026; Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, July 7, 2026

2. March 24, 2026

   The state House passed a higher minimum wage; the Senate hasn’t voted

   House Bill 2189 would raise Pennsylvania’s minimum wage from $7.25 to $11 on Jan. 1, 2027, and in steps to $15 in 2029, with yearly adjustments after that. The House passed it on March 24 and the Senate sent it to its labor committee on March 30. A resolution to pull it out of committee was presented on Sept. 30, its latest action; the bill was still in committee as of Oct. 16 (see the minimum wage).

   Pennsylvania General Assembly, House Bill 2189

3. Feb. 9, 2026

   Pennie customers faced much higher premiums, and many dropped coverage

   Pennie, Pennsylvania’s health insurance marketplace, said about 486,000 people signed up for 2026. With the extra federal premium tax credits gone, people faced an average increase of 102% to keep the same plan, and Pennie estimated that about 85,000 dropped coverage. These are Pennie’s figures.

   Pennie, Feb. 9, 2026

4. Nov. 14, 2025

   November SNAP benefits went out in full after the federal shutdown

   November’s SNAP payments, the federal food benefit, were delayed while the federal government was shut down. Once the shutdown ended, Pennsylvania’s human services department issued more than $276 million in benefits on Nov. 13 alone and said on Nov. 14 that full November payments had gone out.

   Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, Nov. 14, 2025

5. Nov. 12, 2025

   A state budget more than four months late, with a new tax credit for working families

   On Nov. 12, the governor signed the budget for the year that began July 1, 2025. The governor’s office put it at $50.1 billion. It created the Working Pennsylvanians Tax Credit, worth 10% of the federal Earned Income Tax Credit and up to $805; anyone who qualifies for the federal credit qualifies, starting with the 2026 tax season, the state revenue department says.

   Office of the Governor, Nov. 12, 2025; Pennsylvania Department of Revenue

6. Sept. 1 to Nov. 1, 2025

   Federal SNAP rule changes reached Pennsylvania

   Under the 2025 federal budget law, Pennsylvania’s waivers from SNAP’s work requirement ended on Sept. 1, which the human services department says affected about 132,000 people. From Oct. 27, only households with an older or disabled member could get the larger heating and utility allowance, which cut benefits for about 72,000 households. From Nov. 1, the work rule covered adults up to 64 and parents whose youngest child is 14 or older, and fewer noncitizens qualified (see SNAP).

   Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, briefing, Aug. 26, 2026

Is Pennsylvania a poor state? It sits in the middle on poverty and income

No, but it isn’t rich either. In 2024, 11.6% of Pennsylvanians lived below the poverty line, 26th highest among the 50 states and D.C. and a little under the U.S. rate of 12.1%. The typical household earned $77,532, 23rd lowest, against $81,604 nationwide (Census Bureau, Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates). Income per person, every dollar residents received divided by the number of residents, was $70,678, 23rd highest (U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis).

An older state, where deaths outnumber births

From 2020 to 2024, 19.5% of Pennsylvanians were 65 or older, 9th highest among the states, against 17.2% nationwide (Census Bureau, American Community Survey). Government benefits such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid made up 20.6% of the income residents received in 2024, 18th highest, against 18.3% for the U.S. (Bureau of Economic Analysis).

Deaths outnumbered births in Pennsylvania in every year from 2021 through 2025, by 81,866 in all, and more people moved out to other states than moved in from them, a net loss of 50,746. The state still grew, by 0.5% from 2020 to 2025, 10th lowest among the states, because 196,095 more people arrived from abroad than left (Census Bureau population estimates; the five-year totals are our sums). These figures describe who lives here; we found no source tying them to the state’s distress.

Why another site may show a different poverty rate

Some sites quote the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, which gives Pennsylvania a slightly different poverty rate and income. We use the Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates, which the bureau makes each year for every state and county, so the state and county rates on this page share one source. Programs that check eligibility use a separate yardstick, the federal poverty guideline, covered in the questions below.

Chester is the richest county, and the least distressed

By median household income, Chester County was the richest in Pennsylvania in 2024, at $130,877, followed by Bucks, at $112,331, and Montgomery, at $111,915 (Census Bureau). All three are Philadelphia suburbs, and all three are among the five least distressed counties. Philadelphia County’s typical household earned $60,500. The poorest and most distressed counties →

SNAP in Pennsylvania: more residents get food help than in most states, and the count is falling

In June 2026, 1,714,398 Pennsylvanians got SNAP, the federal food benefit once called food stamps, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reports. That is 13.1% of the state’s 2025 population, tied for 8th highest among the 50 states and D.C., against 10.6% nationwide, a high share for a state in the middle on poverty. A year earlier, in June 2025, the count was 1,941,067, so it dropped by 226,669 in a year, or 11.7%.

To apply for SNAP or check on a case, use the state’s COMPASS site →

The slide started before the new federal rules. Pennsylvania’s count peaked at 2,024,539 in August 2024 and had already fallen by 102,729 a year later, before the first rule change took effect on Sept. 1, 2025. It then fell another 207,412 by June 2026, below its average before the pandemic, 1,733,275 (U.S. Department of Agriculture; the differences are our calculation). Pennsylvania’s human services department counts about 89,000 people who lost SNAP because of the 2025 federal law between Sept. 1, 2025, and late August 2026. That is less than half of the drop since August 2025, and we found no source that explains the rest.

The rules behind Pennsylvania’s smaller SNAP count

The 2025 federal budget law ended Pennsylvania’s waivers from SNAP’s work requirement. It limited the larger heating and utility allowance to households with an older or disabled member. It also widened the work rule to adults up to 64 and parents of children 14 and older, and narrowed which noncitizens qualify. The dates are in what changed. A smaller count is not proof of less need: the latest Census poverty figures are for 2024, before the changes. Is Pennsylvania poor? →

Are Pennsylvanians behind on their bills? A little less often than Americans overall

Slightly less than the country. In early 2025, 16.2% of Pennsylvanians with a credit record had a debt 90 or more days late, 24th highest among the 50 states and D.C., against 17.2% nationally, our population-weighted average of the states (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia). Mortgages are the exception: Pennsylvania homeowners are a little more likely than homeowners nationwide to be behind. All of this is household borrowing; the state government’s own debt isn’t part of it.

In early 2025, Pennsylvanians were a little less likely than Americans overall to be far behind on cards and car loans, and a little more likely on mortgages

Among Pennsylvanians and Americans with each kind of loan, the share 90 days or more behind, plus the share of people with a debt in collections, first quarter of 2025.

Card borrowers 90+ days late

Pa. 13.4% U.S. 13.5%

People with a debt in collections

Pa. 12.0% U.S. 13.2%

Auto borrowers 90+ days late

Pa. 7.3% U.S. 8.5%

Mortgage borrowers 90+ days late

Pa. 1.3% U.S. 1.2%

Ranked from the largest share among the 50 states and D.C., Pennsylvania is 22nd on cards, 25th on collections, tied for 26th on car loans and tied for 14th on mortgages. We built each U.S. bar from the states’ figures, with bigger states counting for more.

Falling far behind on cards is more common than it was. The share of Pennsylvania card borrowers 90 or more days late rose from 9.4% at the end of 2019 to 13.4% in early 2025. Collections fell over the same years, from 17.3% to a low of 10.7% in mid-2023, and have edged up since. Most of that fall came before 2022: the share was down to 13.6% by early that year. The rest came from early 2022 to mid-2023, while the three big credit bureaus were dropping many medical debts from credit reports, and a debt left off a report hasn’t necessarily been paid. Across the country, the share of people with a medical collection on their report went from about 14% in March 2022 to about 5% in June 2023 (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau).

Bankruptcy in Pennsylvania: fewer filings per person than in most states in 2025, but more of them under Chapter 13

Pennsylvanians filed 13,965 bankruptcy cases in 2025, or 106.9 for every 100,000 residents (2025 population), 18th lowest among the 50 states and D.C., against 166.3 nationwide (Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts). Filings rose 10.3% from 2024, a little less than the 11.1% rise nationwide. They have risen every year since 2022, and 2025 brought the most since 2020, when Pennsylvanians filed 14,120.

Chapter 13 accounts for an unusually large share of Pennsylvania’s cases, 44.1% in 2025, 11th highest among the states, against 35.9% nationally. In a Chapter 13 case, filers usually keep their property and pay back part of their debts under a court-approved plan lasting three to five years. In Chapter 7, the more common kind, many debts are wiped out and property the law doesn’t protect can be sold.

How foreclosure works in Pennsylvania

Every home foreclosure in Pennsylvania goes through a court, the county Court of Common Pleas, and ends, if the owner doesn’t catch up or settle, with a sheriff’s sale. At least 30 days before filing, the lender must mail a notice of intent to foreclose. For most owner-occupied one- and two-family homes, this is the Act 91 notice, which also tells the owner about state mortgage help. Otherwise, it is the Act 6 notice (41 P.S. § 403; 35 P.S. § 1680.403c). Once served with the complaint, the owner ordinarily has 20 days to respond (Pa. R.C.P. No. 1026), and notice of the sheriff’s sale must be served at least 30 days before it (Pa. R.C.P. No. 3129.2).

Up to one hour before bidding starts at the sheriff’s sale, the owner can stop the foreclosure by paying what is overdue plus allowed fees and costs. The owner need not pay the whole loan and can use this right as many as three times in a calendar year (41 P.S. § 404). After the sale there is no right to buy the home back. To collect any balance the sale didn’t cover, the lender must ask the court to set the home’s fair market value within six months after the sheriff’s deed is delivered (42 Pa.C.S. §§ 8103, 5522). Federal mortgage servicing rules generally bar a lender from starting foreclosure on a primary home before the loan is more than 120 days behind.

The state’s Homeowners’ Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program, run by the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, lends qualifying owners up to $60,000 to cover missed and upcoming payments, a loan that must be repaid. In Philadelphia, owner-occupied foreclosure cases are scheduled for a conference with the lender under the court’s Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Diversion Program. In Allegheny County, owners facing a filed foreclosure can join the court’s Save Your Home program by calling its hotline, 866-298-8020. The statewide foreclosure rules have no mediation step, so help like this depends on the county.

Pennsylvania was awarded $350.4 million from the federal Homeowner Assistance Fund and had helped 22,597 households with it through early 2026 (U.S. Treasury). The state’s program, the Pennsylvania Homeowner Assistance Fund, no longer takes new applications (Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency).

Pennsylvania mortgage complaints: what homeowners report to the CFPB

Since 2012 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has logged 16,039 mortgage complaints from Pennsylvania. Problems with making payments top the list, at 4,279 complaints, followed by loan modifications, collection and foreclosure (3,253) and servicing, payment and escrow trouble (3,041).

What to watch before the next edition

Four things to watch before the next edition are listed nearest first. They are a jobs report, the last day to apply for a property tax or rent rebate, the start of a Medicaid work rule and the first step for a stalled minimum wage bill.

1. Oct. 20, 2026

   September unemployment rates for the states

   The Bureau of Labor Statistics is scheduled to publish state unemployment rates for September. Pennsylvania’s August rate, 3.7%, was down from 4.4% a year earlier, a drop the bureau counts as statistically significant.

   Bureau of Labor Statistics, State Employment and Unemployment, August 2026 release

2. Dec. 31, 2026

   Last day to apply for a property tax or rent rebate

   Older Pennsylvanians and people with disabilities whose incomes qualify have until Dec. 31 to apply for a rebate on the property taxes or rent they paid in 2025; the state revenue department extended the deadline in May.

   Pennsylvania Department of Revenue, May 15, 2026

3. Jan. 1, 2027

   Medicaid work rule and six-month renewals for expansion adults

   Adults 19 to 64 covered through Medicaid’s expansion will have to show 80 hours a month of work or other activity, or household income of at least $580 a month, unless exempt, and those renewing from February 2027 will renew every six months, Pennsylvania’s human services department says. It counts about 800,000 adults in the expansion group.

   Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, briefing, Aug. 26, 2026

4. Jan. 1, 2027

   The first step of the minimum wage bill, if it passes

   House Bill 2189 would lift the minimum wage to $11 on this date only if the Senate passes it and the governor signs it before then. It was still in the Senate’s labor committee as of Oct. 16; the latest action, on Sept. 30, was a resolution to pull it out.

   Pennsylvania General Assembly, House Bill 2189

Where Pennsylvania ranks highest and lowest