Over the last couple of years, charts such as the below have become commonplace - showing the GDP per capita of each US state, with the UK below even Mississippi, the poorest. 1 In other words, not only is the UK poorer than the US - which many people know, though they typically underestimate by just how much - it is poorer than the poorest state in the US.
The general impression of Mississippi in the UK is…not good. So one response to this chart is to say that it is not true - that although the headline figures show an equivalence, after taking into account, for example, the amount you’d have to pay for private healthcare in Mississippi, most people would be worse off.
As it happens, a bunch of my relatives, over three extant generations, live in Mississippi and Louisiana, the next door state - and this summer I went out to visit them. So in this post we’ll be diving into what the stats say - looking beyond the headline figures to consider wages, taxes, housing costs, health insurance and much more, while interspersing this with, as Twoflower would put it, observations from ‘What I did on my holidays.’2
Note that £1 = $1.35.
Core economic indicators3
As of 2025, GDP per capita in Mississippi was $55,800, vs $57,600 for the UK - we have pulled slightly ahead since these charts were made (driven largely by exchange rate fluctuations).4
GDP per capita in purchasing power parity terms is somewhat more difficult to calculate. UK GDP per capita is $64,000.5 The price-parity given for Mississippi vs the US as a whole is 0.87; adjusting the GDP per capita by this gives us $64,100 - or almost identical to the UK.
What about other indicators?
Median household income in Mississippi is $59,000 - or more than 25% lower than in the US as a whole. In the UK it is £36,700, or $49,500 - giving Mississippi a clear advantage here.
While we are primarily interested here in which is richer, not which is more equal, a quick glance at other indicators shows us that the UK unemployment rate is 4.9% vs 3.6% in Mississippi.6
The minimum wage in Mississippi is $7.25 an hour, vs £12.71 ($17.10) in the UK. However, when we look up what people actually get paid, the site ‘Indeed’ tells me workers at McDonald’s make $10-$13 an hour. And Walmart is advertising its basic roles at $14 - $27 an hour - which is a lot closer to UK levels.
Taxation
In the UK, we pay:
28% (income tax + NI) on income above £12,500 but below £50,000.7
42% (ditto) on income above £50,000.
Effectively 60% on income between £100,000 and £125,000, as the personal allowance is withdrawn.
45% on income over £125,000.
In Mississippi, state income tax is very low, at 0% for the first $10,000 and 4% on everything over that. The bulk of income tax comes from federal income tax:
On top of that, there is Social Security and Medicare taxes, which together are just under 8%, payable on earnings up to $184,000 and with no lower threshold.
At low incomes, taxes are actually slightly higher in the US, driven by the lack of threshold for Social Security. But middle and higher earners pay less, sometimes much less:
Earning £30,000 ($40,500): UK and Mississippi take-home pay are both around £25k/$33,500.
Earning £75,000 ($101,250): UK take-home pay is £54,000 vs £56,000 ($76,000) in Mississippi
Earning £150k ($202,500): UK take-home pay is £91k vs £106k ($143k) in Mississippi.
Unsurprisingly, in reality it is more complex than this; in both countries, there are a range of tax credits available for various things - and Mississippi is notably more generous to households where one partner earns much more than the other. But overall, similar levels at low incomes and increasingly divergent at higher levels is a fair summary.
What about other taxes?
Mississippi sales tax is 7%, versus VAT at 20% in the UK.
Fuel taxes are much higher in the UK, reflected in a cost of petrol that is over double that of Mississippi.
The median annual property tax in Mississippi is $1,221 (£904) compared to an average council tax in the UK of £1,770.
Overall, on any given income, considering both direct and indirect taxes, someone in Mississippi will be paying less tax - and potentially a lot less tax.
Housing
When my grandma passed away in 2020, her house - a four-bedroom house with a spacious garden, in a nice suburb of New Orleans, 30 minutes drive from the CBD - was sold for around $175,000 (£130,000).