Wisconsin — financial stress by county

The Financial Stress Index (FSI) combines renter cost burden, eviction rate, and debt in collections into a 0–100 score. 71 of 72 Wisconsin counties have all three inputs and receive a score. The average FSI across reporting counties is 34.6. Milwaukee, WI has the highest score at 76.

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: Wisconsin'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 medical debt (close to the national average, 49th percentile) as the largest of the three. See the full debt breakdown for Wisconsin.

Among states with reliable FSI coverage (≥60% of counties scored), Wisconsin ranks #30 of 36 states. The average FSI of 34.6 is 34% below the national average FSI of 52.6.

Wisconsin ranks #8 of 10 in the Midwest by average FSI score — between Minnesota (35.1) just above and Kansas (34.1) just below.