Lol. The South has tons of economic powerhouses that dwarf anything in Iowa, or anywhere in the Midwest outside of Chicago for that matter. Atlanta, Dallas, Houston are some of the biggest cities in the US and home to very powerful global enterprises with international draw, along with many millions of people.
I can give you the simple reason as to why Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama are bottom feeders in all these stats, but the majority of the posters here couldn’t handle it. All these places have seriously rich people far and above anything in Iowa to go along with the legions of impoverished and uneducated African American slave descendants that drag it down statistically.