With grocery prices having risen more than 25% over the past five years, the personal-finance website WalletHub has released its report on the States Where People Spend the Most & Least on Groceries to offer insight into where Americans are having the most trouble affording food.
 
 WalletHub analyzed the prices of 26 common grocery items in each of the 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.
  

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.

West Virginia

West Virginians spend the second most money on groceries as a percentage of their income, at slightly under 2.6%. This is mainly due to the fact that West Virginia also has the second-lowest median household income in the country, at $55,217 per year.

In addition, there are a few major categories of groceries that are more expensive in West Virginia than in most other states. For example, it has the ninth-highest egg prices, the 7th-highest potato prices and the 16th-highest sausage prices in the country. For other grocery prices, West Virginia is either around the middle or bottom of the country. In fact, it’s the least expensive state for lettuce and ranks in the 10 least-expensive states for eight other product categories.

Reasonable prices on most groceries unfortunately can’t make up for low incomes in West Virginia.

Arkansas

Arkansas residents spend the third-most money on groceries relative to what they earn, shelling out around 2.5% of the median household income each month. Like the other high-spending states, Arkansas has a low median household income, at only $56,335 per year. That’s the third-lowest in the country.

Unfortunately, because of the low median income in Arkansas, even the eighth-cheapest groceries in the country don’t stop people from having to spend a large portion of their income. Arkansas ranks among the 10 least-expensive states for fourteen types of goods in our study, including chicken, potato chips, corn flakes, frozen meals and sausage.