10 real reasons America needs to kick these states out of the country
If America were a group project, these states would be the teammates making everybody else sweat.
No, this isn’t a literal breakup plan. It’s a stress test that keeps showing up in the ugliest data. The Census says 309 U.S. counties stayed at 20% or higher poverty for two straight decades; about 85% of them were in the South. The Commonwealth Fund’s 2025 health scorecard put Mississippi, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and West Virginia at the bottom.
Commonwealth Fund president Joseph Betancourt said, “where you live continues to define your health.” Census demographer Kristie Wilder said the big national trend is the “diminishing role of natural increase,” while NCES Commissioner Peggy Carr said student achievement still hasn’t returned to pre-pandemic levels. So yeah, place matters a lot.
I also threw in California and New York, so nobody can complain that this is just a red-state rant. Bad outcomes come in red, blue, and very expensive. Here are the states on the chopping block.
Mississippi: Poverty on autopilot
Poverty sits at 17.8%, life expectancy is 72.6 years, infant mortality is 9.65 per 1,000 births, and U.S. Census Bureau data confirms that 36% of residents live in counties stuck in sustained poverty for 20 years. That’s not a bad season. That’s a whole business model.
Louisiana: The chaos surcharge
Louisiana had the highest state poverty rate in 2024 at 18.7%, plus a homicide rate of 16.4 per 100,000 and an overdose death rate of 33.5. With the U.S. homicide rate at 5.9, Louisiana isn’t just struggling; it’s running a rougher version of America.
West Virginia: Still trapped in survival mode
Even after U.S. overdose deaths fell 26.9% in 2024, West Virginia’s overdose death rate was still 48 per 100,000, its life expectancy was just 72.2, and it was one of the few states that lost population again in 2025. When a place keeps shrinking and dying younger, people notice.
New Mexico: Postcard views, grim scoreboard
The state posted a 37.1 overdose death rate and a 14.9 homicide rate, both far above national levels, and 19.3% of residents live in counties trapped in sustained poverty. It also lost population from 2024 to 2025. Beautiful sky. Brutal numbers.
Arkansas: Way too much pain per capita
Arkansas ranked #48 in the Commonwealth Fund’s 2025 health scorecard, had 393 premature avoidable deaths per 100,000 people, and an infant mortality rate of 8.28 per 1,000 births. When babies and adults are both losing the stats war, the alarm is already flashing red.
Oklahoma: The all-purpose mess
Oklahoma ranked #49 in the same scorecard, with 16% uninsured adults, 410 premature avoidable deaths per 100,000 people, and infant mortality above 7 per 1,000 births. That’s what policy failure looks like when it gets efficient.
Texas: Too big, too uninsured
Texas had the nation’s highest uninsured rate in 2024 at 16.7%, and 21.6% of working-age adults lacked coverage; maternal mortality was 34.7 per 100,000 live births, above the U.S. figure of 26.3. Everything is bigger in Texas, including the gap between need and care.
California: Rich state, broken housing math
Median home value hit $734,700, median rent hit $2,036, homelessness reached 187,084 people, and the state still lost 239,575 residents to domestic migration in 2023–24 before its population slipped again in 2025. If a place this wealthy can’t house people, that’s not quirky; it’s broken.
New York: World capital, housing mess
New York’s homelessness rate hit 81 per 10,000 people in 2024, up 53% in a year, while the state also lost 120,917 residents to domestic migration in 2023–24; HUD pointed to evictions, rising rents, and a lack of affordable housing. That’s not the price of greatness. It’s the price of not building enough.
Alaska: Stunning landscape, nasty health numbers
Alaska’s overdose death rate was 45.1 per 100,000, its firearm death rate was 24.4, and infant mortality was 6.82 per 1,000 births. Compared with U.S. rates of 23.3 overdose deaths and 13.1 firearm deaths, Alaska looks less like rugged freedom and more like a public-health emergency with mountains.
Key takeaway: What this really says about America
The ugly truth is this list isn’t really about Geography. It’s about repeated failure. Mississippi, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and West Virginia keep landing at the bottom of national health scorecards, while California and New York prove that huge wealth doesn’t automatically fix housing or homelessness. As Dr. Betancourt warned, “where you live continues to define your health,” and that’s still absurd in modern America.
America doesn’t need to literally kick states out. It needs to stop treating state-level failure like local color. The same places keep dragging national averages on poverty, health, overdose deaths, housing, and affordability; and the trend lines are not subtle.
Disclaimer – This list is solely the author’s opinion based on research and publicly available information. It is not intended to be professional advice.
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