Study ranks US states with most financially-distressed residents – see the list

A personal finance company recently published a survey on the U.S. states with the most money-worried residents – and the results may surprise you.

WalletHub published its study, titled “States with the Most People in Financial Distress,” on July 17. The company said that it used nine key metrics, including credit score changes and Internet searches for “debt” and “loans,” to determine the results.

“Our data set includes factors like the average credit score, the change in the number of bankruptcy filings between March 2023 and March 2024, and the share of people with accounts in distress,” WalletHub explained.

There were no clear-cut trends concerning different U.S. regions, but the most money-worried states tended to be in the Southeast, while the least financially-distressed were in New England and the Midwest.

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In order of least-to-most financially-distressed residents, WalletHub ranked U.S. states as follows:

50. New Hampshire

49. Iowa

48. Connecticut

47. Vermont

46. Wisconsin

45. Nebraska

44. Maine

43. Kansas

42. Oregon

41. Wyoming

40. Massachusetts

39. Hawaii

38. Pennsylvania

37. New Mexico

36. Montana

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35. Utah

34. Alaska

33. Virginia

32. New Jersey

31. Arkansas

30. Colorado

29. Minnesota

28. Indiana

27. Ohio

26. California

25. Idaho

24. Washington

23. North Dakota

22. Maryland

21. Missouri

20. Illinois

19. West Virginia

18. Arizona

17. Alabama

16. Delaware

15. South Dakota

14. Kentucky

13. Florida

12. Oklahoma

11. South Carolina

10. New York

9. Mississippi

8. North Carolina

7. Louisiana

6. Georgia

5. Rhode Island

4. Tennessee

3. Nevada

2. Texas

1. Michigan

WalletHub discovered that Michigan was the most financially-distressed state after finding, in the first quarter of 2024, that the Great Lakes State had “the most accounts per person in financial distress, meaning accounts where the account holder was temporarily allowed to not make payments due to financial difficulty.”

“Michiganians also had the second-highest increase in the share of people with distressed accounts between Q1 2023 and Q1 2024, at over 70%,” the study added.

The company added that despite Texas having a $2.4 trillion economy, the Lone Star State followed Michigan.

“However, Texans are having a number of economic struggles, which are demonstrated by the fact that residents had the third-lowest average credit score in the country in Q1 2024,” WalletHub reported.

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“Texans also search Google for ‘debt’ and ‘loans’ at a high rate, which shows that many people are desperate to borrow, despite already owing money.”

According to WalletHub analyst Cassandra Happe, measuring states by financial distress is an efficient way “to take the pulse of a state and see whether people are generally thriving or having trouble making ends meet.”

“When you combine data about people delaying payments with other metrics like bankruptcy filings and credit score changes, it paints a good picture of the overall economic trends of a state,” Happe said.