With little end in sight to the rising grocery prices, a recent analysis showed that some states are being hit harder as incomes fail to keep up.
Personal finance website WalletHub recently conducted a survey analyzing 26 common grocery items in all 50 states, then added these costs together and compared them to the median household income in order to determine where people are spending the greatest percentage of their income on groceries.
The states with the highest cost of groceries as a share of the median monthly household income included a number of southern states.
| Overall Rank* Note: *No. 1 = Highest Spending | State | Cost of Groceries as a Share of Median Monthly Household Income |
| 1 | Mississippi | 2.64% |
| 2 | West Virginia | 2.57% |
| 3 | Arkansas | 2.49% |
| 4 | Kentucky | 2.41% |
| 5 | Louisiana | 2.39% |
| 6 | New Mexico | 2.36% |
| 7 | Alabama | 2.34% |
| 8 | South Carolina | 2.27% |
| 9 | Tennessee | 2.23% |
| 10 | Oklahoma | 2.21% |
Georgia came in at No. 30 with the share being 1.98%.
The lowest cost of groceries as a share of the median monthly household income landed in New Jersey at 1.50%.
| Overall Rank* | State | Cost of Groceries as a Share of Median Monthly Household Income |
| 41 | Hawaii | 1.68% |
| 42 | Colorado | 1.67% |
| 43 | Virginia | 1.66% |
| 44 | Minnesota | 1.66% |
| 45 | Utah | 1.63% |
| 46 | Connecticut | 1.62% |
| 47 | New Hampshire | 1.60% |
| 48 | Massachusetts | 1.54% |
| 49 | Maryland | 1.54% |
| 50 | New Jersey | 1.50% |
From WalletHub:
People in Mississippi spend the most on groceries, which have an average cost of 2.6% of the median household income, the highest percentage in the country. For comparison, New Jersey residents only spend around 1.5% of their income on groceries, the lowest percentage.
Interestingly, grocery prices in Mississippi are actually relatively low – the ninth-cheapest in the nation. For example, in 15 of the product categories measured in our study, including chunk tuna, margarine, peas, dishwashing detergent, and peaches, Mississippi is among the 10 least expensive states.
The main problem lies in the fact that Mississippi has the lowest median annual household income in America, at just $52,985. So even with relatively low grocery prices overall, Mississippians are spending a higher percentage of their income on groceries than people in any other state.
