16 Poorest Small Cities in America: 2015 List

13. Laredo, TX

Laredo’s metro area consists of around 260,000 citizens who earn $26,167 on average when it comes to per capita GDP. Needless to say, that’s way below the national average, but, at least, the unemployment rate of 4.5% is somewhat encouraging. On the other hand, when you have 31.1% of inhabitants living below the poverty line, something is definitely wrong. That’s almost one-third of the population or around 80,000 people no less. With that in mind, almost one-fifth of the population lives on less than $15,000 a year. Go figure!