Debt in Collections · United States · Updated May 2026

States with the highest debt in collections

Q: Which state has the highest rate of debt in collections?

South Carolina has the highest county-average debt-in-collections rate at 36.3% — meaning nearly one in three adults in the typical county has at least one account in collections. The national median is 19.0%.

Debt in collections is the share of adults who have at least one unpaid bill sent to a debt collector — from medical bills, credit cards, auto loans, utilities, or other consumer debt. When a lender gives up trying to collect a debt directly, it "charges off" the debt and sells it to a collector instead. The county rate shows how many adults this has happened to, among adults with a credit-bureau file — the survey excludes credit-invisible adults.

The national median county debt-in-collections rate across all 50 states is 19.0%. South Carolina has the highest county average at 36.3% — meaning the typical county in that state has nearly one in three credit-active adults with at least one account in collections. Data: Urban Institute Debt in America survey, 2024.

All 50 States — Ranked by Debt in Collections Rate

States ranked by debt in collections

State Avg Rate Counties

1 South Carolina 36.3% 46 counties 2 Texas 33.8% 236 counties 3 Georgia 33.5% 158 counties 4 Louisiana 33.4% 64 counties 5 Alabama 32.2% 67 counties 6 Arkansas 31.9% 75 counties 7 Mississippi 31.7% 81 counties 8 Oklahoma 30.8% 77 counties 9 West Virginia 28.3% 55 counties 10 North Carolina 28.2% 100 counties 11 Kentucky 27.7% 120 counties 12 Tennessee 27.1% 95 counties 13 New Mexico 26.9% 32 counties 14 Florida 26.8% 67 counties 15 Arizona 25.6% 15 counties 16 Nevada 24.7% 16 counties 17 Delaware 24.3% 3 counties 18 Missouri 24.3% 115 counties 19 Virginia 23.6% 133 counties 20 Ohio 23.3% 88 counties 21 Indiana 21.6% 92 counties 22 Illinois 21.1% 102 counties 23 Maryland 20.7% 24 counties 24 District of Columbia 20.5% 1 counties 25 Maine 19.7% 16 counties 26 Michigan 19.0% 83 counties 27 Pennsylvania 19.0% 67 counties 28 New York 18.8% 62 counties 29 Kansas 18.6% 100 counties 30 Wyoming 18.2% 23 counties 31 California 18.2% 57 counties 32 Connecticut 18.2% 17 counties 33 New Jersey 17.0% 21 counties 34 Montana 16.7% 48 counties 35 Iowa 16.3% 99 counties 36 Oregon 16.3% 35 counties 37 Alaska 16.0% 25 counties 38 Wisconsin 15.4% 72 counties 39 New Hampshire 15.2% 10 counties 40 Idaho 14.8% 42 counties 41 Colorado 14.7% 60 counties 42 Massachusetts 14.5% 14 counties 43 Rhode Island 14.5% 5 counties 44 Vermont 14.5% 14 counties 45 Washington 14.5% 39 counties 46 Hawaii 14.4% 4 counties 47 South Dakota 14.3% 59 counties 48 Utah 13.7% 28 counties 49 Nebraska 13.6% 76 counties 50 North Dakota 12.7% 47 counties 51 Minnesota 12.2% 87 counties

Regional patterns in debt in collections

Debt in collections follows a sharp regional divide. Southern states dominate the top of the rankings. States across the South including Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Arkansas, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia average 32.0% county debt collection rates. This site tracks debt, income, and health outcomes, not insurance-status, Medicaid-enrollment, or consumer-protection-law data, so it can measure the regional gap but not attribute it to a specific cause. Medicaid expansion in particular is not a clean predictor here: some states that expanded Medicaid (Arkansas, Louisiana) still report higher medical-debt rates than some states that never did (Mississippi) — see the medical debt breakdown for the full county-level picture.

The least-affected states — Minnesota, North Dakota, Nebraska, Utah, South Dakota — tend to have higher household incomes. Beyond that, this site's data doesn't support a specific causal explanation for the gap.

What debt in collections data includes

This data shows the share of adults in each US county who have at least one debt sent to a collections agency. It comes from a major credit bureau and covers four types of debt:

Medical debt — unpaid hospital bills, doctor's fees, and pharmacy charges
Credit card debt — card balances the lender has given up trying to collect directly
Late car loans — auto loans more than 90 days overdue
Late student loans — federal and private student loans that are overdue or in default

County figures are estimates, built from a sample of credit bureau records and Census population data. The Urban Institute warns that estimates are less precise for small or rural counties. This data is from 2024, before any later student loan pause or debt relief that may have changed the numbers since.

The state rankings on this page are a simple average of each state's counties — every county counts the same, no matter its population. This shows how widely debt stress is spread across a state's geography, rather than how many people it affects overall.

Common questions

FAQ — debt in collections by state

Which state has the highest rate of debt in collections?

South Carolina has the highest county-average rate at 36.3% — nearly one in three adults in the typical county has at least one account in collections. The national median is 19.0%.

What counts as "debt in collections"?

A debt enters collections when a lender gives up trying to collect it directly and hands it to a collections agency instead — covering medical debt, credit card debt, and late car or student loan payments.

Why do Southern states have higher debt collection rates?

Southern states average 32.0% — well above the national median. This site tracks debt, income, and health outcomes, not insurance-status or policy data, so it can measure the regional gap but not attribute it to a specific cause. Medicaid expansion in particular isn't a clean predictor: some expansion states (Arkansas, Louisiana) report higher medical-debt rates than some non-expansion states (Mississippi) — see the medical debt breakdown for the county-level picture.

Which states have the lowest debt collection rates?

Minnesota, North Dakota, Nebraska, Utah, South Dakota have the lowest debt-in-collections rates, reflecting higher median household incomes. Beyond that, this site's data doesn't support a specific causal explanation for the gap.

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