Debt in Collections · Washington
Across the 39 counties in Washington measured by the Urban Institute's Debt in America survey, 14.5% of adults have at least one account in collections. The county-level range is wide: Yakima, WA sits at 19.7% while Jefferson, WA is just 10.9% — a 1.8× spread within a single state.
The median dollar amount in collections for Washington residents is $2,175 per affected adult, based on Urban Institute's 2024 release.
State averages — debt subtypes
The Urban Institute reports debt in collections in four categories. Across Washington's 39 counties, the average rates are:
These figures are county averages weighted equally — the underlying Urban Institute sample uses credit-bureau records, which exclude adults who do not have a credit file. Rates can be substantially higher for credit-active adults than for the full adult population.
Top 10 — Highest Debt Counties
Bottom 5 — Lowest Debt Counties
Frequently asked — debt in Washington
14.5% of adults in Washington have at least one account in collections, based on the Urban Institute's 2024 Debt in America survey. That figure is the average across the 39 Washington counties measured. The county-level rate varies widely from 10.9% in Jefferson, WA to 19.7% in Yakima, WA.
Yakima, WA has the highest debt-in-collections rate in Washington at 19.7%. The next four highest counties are Asotin, WA (19.5%), Garfield, WA (19.4%), Grays Harbor, WA (18.2%), Pierce, WA (17.9%). Rates are credit-bureau-derived and reflect the credit-active adult population only.
Jefferson, WA has the lowest rate in Washington at 10.9%. The five lowest-debt counties in Washington are Jefferson, WA (10.9%), King, WA (10.8%), Kittitas, WA (10.3%), Island, WA (9.2%), San Juan, WA (7.0%).
The median dollar amount in collections per affected Washington adult is $2,175, averaged across the 39 measured counties. That figure represents the typical balance owed by individuals who have at least one account in collections — not the average across all adults.
1.3% of Washington adults have medical debt in collections, on average across measured counties. That figure follows the 2022 credit-bureau reporting change, which excludes medical debts under $500 from collection reports. Actual medical-debt exposure (including smaller balances and paid-down accounts) is materially higher.
Methodology & sources
The figures on this page are sourced from the Urban Institute Debt in America (2024) release. The Urban Institute calculates each county-level rate from a 2-percent random sample of credit-bureau records, then publishes the share of credit-active adults with at least one account that has been sent to a third-party collection agency or in-house collections unit.
"In collections" means a debt is 90+ days past due and has either been written off by the original creditor or assigned to a collection agency. The Urban Institute reports four breakdowns — overall, medical, credit-card delinquency, and auto/retail delinquency. Medical debt in collections is reported only when it exceeds $500 per the 2022 credit-bureau reporting change.
Coverage caveat: the survey excludes adults without a credit file, which means the published rates are for the credit-active population only. Rates for the full adult population (including those without credit) are typically lower in absolute terms but follow the same county-to-county ordering. Counties with fewer than 50 sampled adults are not published.
Data is free under the Urban Institute's open-data policy. Figures here are licensed under CC BY 4.0 with attribution to USInsights.
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