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.

Grocery prices have soared over the past few years, rising more than 25% since 2019, according to the USDA. Earnings have not risen at the same rate which has resulted in groceries becoming less affordable and taking up a much larger percentage of people’s incomes.

In light of this issue, 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 to determine where people are spending the greatest percentage of their income on groceries.

“While grocery prices have gone up tremendously in recent years, the states in which people spend the greatest percentage of their income on groceries aren’t those with the highest prices. Instead, the median incomes in these states are quite low, so even with reasonable grocery prices, residents end up shelling out a higher percentage of their earnings than people in states with more expensive products,” said Chip Lupo, WalletHub Analyst.

States were ranked by percent of median household income spent on 26 common grocery store items. The most expensive state was Mississippi, least expensive state was New Jersey. California ranked in the least expensive tier of states.

The top 10 where people spend the greatest percentage of income on groceries are:

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%

The top 12 states where people spend the least percentage of income on groceries are:

39 Washington 1.71%

40 California 1.69%

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%

Grocery Spending in California

(1=Most Expensive; 25=Avg.):

Average Cost of Groceries: $129.57

Average Cost of Groceries as a percent of Median Monthly Household Income: 1.69%

25th – Average Price of Ground Beef

2nd – Average Price of Eggs

31st – Average Price of Potatoes

3rd – Average Price of Bananas

13th – Average Price of Sugar

3rd – Average price of Corn Flakes

8th – Average Price of Soft Drinks

4th – Average Price of Dishwashing Detergent