Iowa — financial stress by county

The Financial Stress Index (FSI) combines renter cost burden, eviction rate, and debt in collections into a 0–100 score. 99 of 99 Iowa counties have all three inputs and receive a score. The average FSI across reporting counties is 35.1. Black Hawk, IA has the highest score at 75.

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; the debt-collections input reflects credit-active adults only — those with a credit-bureau file.

Among states with reliable FSI coverage (≥60% of counties scored), Iowa ranks #28 of 36 states. The average FSI of 35.1 is 33% below the national average FSI of 52.6.

Iowa ranks #6 of 10 in the Midwest by average FSI score — between Illinois (42.3) just above and Minnesota (35.1) just below.