Massachusetts — financial stress by county

The Financial Stress Index (FSI) combines renter cost burden, eviction rate, and debt in collections into a 0–100 score. 14 of 14 Massachusetts counties have all three inputs and receive a score. The average FSI across reporting counties is 59.0. Bristol, MA has the highest score at 72.

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), Massachusetts ranks #8 of 36 states. The average FSI of 59.0 is 12% above the national average FSI of 52.6.

Massachusetts ranks #2 of 6 in the Northeast by average FSI score — between Connecticut (66.2) just above and Rhode Island (57.6) just below.