County Distress Index
The County Distress Index (CDI) scores all 3,144 U.S. counties on a 0–100 scale across 5 equal-weighted domains: delinquency, default and legal, debt burden, labor, and safety net and buffer. A county's score is the share of U.S. counties it is more distressed than.
Data: U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Urban Institute, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts
National Snapshot
3,144 counties scored across 5 domains. Click any score range to see the full list.
County Distress Map
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All 3,144 counties colored by county distress score range. Hover for details; click any county for full report.
All Counties
| Rank | County | State | Score | Score Label |
|---|
Browse by State
Select a state to see county-level distress data, rankings, and maps.
Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
District of Columbia
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
How County Scores Work
Each county is scored 0–100 using 5 equal-weighted domains. Each domain averages its member indicators' county ranks, the domains are averaged, and that average is ranked against every other county. So a county's score is the share of U.S. counties it is more distressed than, and each score label below covers about a tenth of counties.
Frequently Asked Questions
What data sources are used for county distress scores?
County scores draw on the Urban Institute's Debt in America (Equifax consumer credit panel: credit-card delinquency, auto-loan delinquency, debt in collections), FRED/Equifax (subprime credit share), the Census Bureau (poverty, child poverty, median household income, disability, health coverage, severe renter cost burden, adults 25 to 54 not working), the Bureau of Labor Statistics (unemployment averaged over the latest 12 months), HUD (fair market rents), and the U.S. Courts (bankruptcy filings). Each county is scored across 14 individual indicators grouped into 5 equal-weighted domains.
How often are county scores updated?
County inputs update on their source agencies’ publication schedules. Scores are rebuilt when the canonical source set changes; the methodology page identifies the current vintage for each input.
How do county scores differ from the national American Distress Index?
The national American Distress Index tracks household financial distress over time using quarterly time-series data. County scores are cross-sectional — they compare counties to each other at a point in time, so a county's score is the share of U.S. counties it is more distressed than. The national index tracks trends; county scores compare places.