How many US counties are severely financially stressed?

61 US counties scored 85 or above on the USInsights Financial Stress Index in 2024 — the Severe tier. The index combines renter cost burden, eviction rate, and debt in collections into a single 0–100 percentile-rank score.

Which county has the highest financial stress in America?

Clayton, GA leads with an FSI score of 99, with 44.1% of adults carrying debt in collections.

Where are the most financially stressed counties concentrated?

Three regions account for the majority: the Mississippi Delta (7 counties across MS/LA/AR), Central Appalachia (12 across KY/WV/TN/VA), and the Texas Rio Grande Valley (0). These are persistently low-income regions where renters, eviction filings, and unpaid medical debt all cluster together.

Severe Stress Tier · FSI ≥ 85 · 2024

The 61 most financially stressed counties in America

The USInsights Financial Stress Index combines three signals — housing cost burden, eviction filings, and debt in collections — into a single 0–100 score. 61 US counties cleared 85 in 2024, putting them in the Severe tier. They do not appear randomly: 19 of the 61 cluster in three distinct regions — the Mississippi Delta (7), Central Appalachia (12), and the Rio Grande Valley (0). The remaining 42 are scattered outliers.

Mississippi Delta · 7 counties

The Mississippi Delta cluster

7 counties across Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas — a contiguous strip from the Memphis suburbs to the Louisiana state line. Persistently low median incomes combine with high rent burden and the country's highest debt-in-collections rates.

County FSI Debt %

1 Tunica, MS 98 43.9% 2 East Baton Rouge, LA 93 34.6% 3 Caddo, LA 92 39.5% 4 Orleans, LA 91 35.9% 5 Hinds, MS 87 37.5% 6 Calcasieu, LA 86 36.4% 7 Lauderdale, MS 85 31.4%

Central Appalachia · 12 counties

The Appalachian cluster

12 counties across eastern Kentucky, southern West Virginia, southwest Virginia, and the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee. Decades of coal-industry decline, low workforce participation, and concentrated medical debt drive these scores.

County FSI Debt %

1 Portsmouth, VA 98 40.8% 2 Hampton, VA 95 34.6% 3 Hopewell, VA 95 37.8% 4 Norfolk, VA 95 36.3% 5 Petersburg, VA 95 44.7% 6 Franklin, VA 94 47.4% 7 Shelby, TN 92 35.6% 8 Newport News, VA 92 35.5% 9 Emporia, VA 90 44.4% 10 Richmond, VA 90 30.7% 11 Suffolk, VA 90 28.4% 12 Colonial Heights, VA 86 26.4%

Outliers · 42 counties

The other severely stressed counties

42 counties cleared the Severe tier without sitting in any of the three main clusters. They include Native American reservation counties (Buffalo, Apache), Rust Belt cities (Wayne, MI), and persistently low-income Southern Black Belt counties.

County FSI Debt %

1 Clayton, GA 99 44.1% 2 Troup, GA 96 38.1% 3 Baldwin, GA 94 37.0% 4 Henry, GA 94 33.3% 5 Newton, GA 93 37.8% 6 DeKalb, GA 92 30.3% 7 Putnam, GA 92 30.3% 8 Spalding, GA 92 38.4% 9 Vance, NC 92 39.1% 10 Richland, SC 92 36.8% 11 Montgomery, AL 92 38.3% 12 Duval, FL 91 31.5% 13 Polk, GA 91 37.4% 14 Bexar, TX 91 34.4% 15 Tarrant, TX 91 33.3% 16 Russell, AL 91 41.9% 17 Bronx, NY 90 28.8% 18 Bell, TX 90 35.1% 19 Harris, TX 90 33.9% 20 Lubbock, TX 90 33.0% 21 Carroll, GA 89 33.8% 22 Chatham, GA 89 32.2% 23 Cumberland, NC 89 33.5% 24 Marion, IN 88 30.6% 25 Wayne, MI 88 31.6% 26 Nueces, TX 88 41.6% 27 Bay, FL 87 27.1% 28 Vigo, IN 87 29.1% 29 Pitt, NC 87 32.9% 30 Philadelphia, PA 87 31.6% 31 Galveston, TX 87 29.2% 32 Ware, GA 86 36.7% 33 Gaston, NC 86 34.8% 34 Mobile, AL 86 34.2% 35 Laurens, GA 85 34.3% 36 Liberty, GA 85 40.1% 37 Pulaski, GA 85 34.4% 38 Genesee, MI 85 27.1% 39 Cleveland, NC 85 39.9% 40 Bamberg, SC 85 44.9% 41 Brown, TX 85 34.0% 42 Taylor, TX 85 34.5%

Methodology

The Financial Stress Index is a composite percentile-rank score from 0 to 100. Three inputs are each ranked nationally at the county level: renter cost burden (share of renters paying 30%+ of income, 40% weight), eviction rate (filings per 100 rental households, 30% weight), and debt in collections (share of adults with a debt in collections, 30% weight). The weighted average of those three percentile ranks produces the FSI score. A score of 85 means the county sits above the 85th percentile on the weighted composite — the Severe tier.

Sources: US Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2024 (renter cost burden), Princeton Eviction Lab (eviction rate, latest available 2018), Urban Institute Debt in America 2024 (debt in collections).

Related data

Open FSI map