Rhode Island — financial stress by county

The Financial Stress Index (FSI) combines renter cost burden, eviction rate, and debt in collections into a 0–100 score. 5 of 5 Rhode Island counties have all three inputs and receive a score. The average FSI across reporting counties is 57.6. Providence, RI has the highest score at 70.

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.

Debt-input note: Rhode Island's debt-in-collections rate — 30% of the FSI score — isn't concentrated because one debt type runs high; it's that the other two run unusually low, leaving credit card delinquency (close to the national average, 35th percentile) as the largest of the three. See the full debt breakdown for Rhode Island.

Among states with reliable FSI coverage (≥60% of counties scored), Rhode Island ranks #9 of 36 states. The average FSI of 57.6 is 10% above the national average FSI of 52.6.

Rhode Island ranks #3 of 6 in the Northeast by average FSI score — between Massachusetts (59.0) just above and Maine (56.9) just below.