Financial Stress · California
California — financial stress by county
The Financial Stress Index (FSI) combines renter cost burden, eviction rate, and debt in collections into a 0–100 score. 37 of 58 California counties have all three inputs and receive a score. The state average FSI across reporting counties is 54.0. San Bernardino, CA has the highest score at 81.
Data note: The eviction rate component draws from the Princeton Eviction Lab's last national county release (2018). Post-pandemic eviction trends are not reflected in these scores — counties with high pre-2020 eviction activity may score differently if updated data were available. Rent burden and debt figures use 2024 ACS and Urban Institute data.
National comparison · California
How does California compare nationally?
Among states with reliable FSI coverage (≥60% of counties scored), California ranks #17 of 36 states. The state average FSI of 54.0 is 3% above the national average FSI of 52.6.
Within the West, California has the highest financial stress score; the next-most-stressed states are Colorado (48.6) and Oregon (47.4).
Top 10 — Most Stressed Counties
Counties in California ranked by FSI score
Related data
Financial stress — compare with other states
Click any state for county-level data and rankings.