Solved: Why Poor States Are Red And Rich States Are Blue Blue states, like California, New York and Illinois, whose economies turn on finance, trade and knowledge, are generally richer than red states.

Red state economies based on energy extraction, agriculture and suburban sprawl may have lower wages, higher poverty rates and lower levels of education on average than those of blue states - but their residents also benefit from much lower costs of living.

The red states aren't in fact poorer than the blue states.

For blue state urbanites who toil in low-paying retail, food preparation and service jobs, for the journeyman tradespeople who once formed the heart of the middle class, for teachers, civil servants, students and young families, the American dream of homeownership - or even an affordable rental apartment - is increasingly out of reach.

Many are opting to move to cheaper red states instead, further driving their growth.

Restrictive zoning is very much more common in those blue states than it is in the red.

Meaning that by artificially pushing up the cost of housing those blue states are indeed making life worse for the poor.