Governor Deval Patrick concluded his final – and well received – State of the Commonwealth address at 8 p.m. Tuesday. The common theme of his speech was, well, “the common good.” Specifically, Patrick stressed the need to raise the state’s minimum wage in order to support families living in – or trending towards – the poverty line.

Currently, Massachusetts’ minimum wage is $8 an hour. Meanwhile, according to MIT, the living wage for one of this state’s citizens is $12.65 per hour.

With the state’s poverty rate resting at $5.21 per hour, that leaves an average minimum wage worker living closer to the poverty line than a living wage.

The latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau (2008-2012) shows that 11 percent of the state’s residents, about 770,000 people, live below the poverty line – compared to the 15 percent national average.

While the state as a whole is performing better than the national average, in terms of poverty rate statistics, think about this: The City of Boston has a population of 636,479, according to data from 2012. That means the number of people living at or below the poverty line is more than Boston’s entire population.

Images via MIT and mbtatruth.org