South Carolina — financial stress by county

The Financial Stress Index (FSI) combines renter cost burden, eviction rate, and debt in collections into a 0–100 score. 41 of 46 South Carolina counties have all three inputs and receive a score. The average FSI across reporting counties is 67.9. Richland, SC has the highest score at 92.

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), South Carolina ranks #2 of 36 states. The average FSI of 67.9 is 29% above the national average FSI of 52.6.

South Carolina ranks #2 of 12 in the South by average FSI score — between Delaware (75.0) just above and Florida (66.9) just below.