Mecklenburg County, North Carolina
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Charlotte became the nation's second-largest banking center by design. Mecklenburg County's median household income runs 1.4 times the state figure. Business formation is strong at 24.6 applications per 1,000 residents. Unemployment sits at 3.5%. The financial sector created the growth. And then you look at where the growth lands on the balance sheet. Credit card delinquency runs at 7.0%. Auto loan delinquency hits 7.7%. Twenty-seven percent of residents carry debt in collections. Student loan delinquency reaches 18.5%. These are not the numbers of a Healthy county, and at 44.0, Mecklenburg sits at the upper edge of Normal. The Debt & Delinquency domain scores 58.5, well into Elevated territory for that single dimension. The county's overall score is held down by low poverty and strong employment. Strip those out and the debt profile looks like a county 15 points higher. Next door, Gaston County scores 60.4, Elevated. Across the state line, York County (SC) manages 46.0. Mecklenburg ranks 87th of 100 North Carolina counties. The banking capital of the Southeast has a debt delinquency profile that rivals counties twice as distressed overall. The paychecks are large enough to keep the composite score in check. The borrowing suggests they're not large enough to keep up with the cost of living in the city the banks built.
The Numbers Behind the Score
The CDI measures five statistically derived factors of household financial distress, PCA-weighted. Mecklenburg County's primary driver is Housing Cost Burden at 79.6 — worse than roughly 80% of U.S. counties.
Scores are percentile-based: 50 = national median, higher = more distressed.
Neighbors and Peers
Neighboring Counties
| County | Score | Zone | vs. Mecklenburg County |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mecklenburg County, NC | 57.6 | Elevated | — |
| Gaston County, NC | 70.7 | Serious | +13.1 |
| York County, SC | 56.5 | Elevated | -1.1 |
| Cabarrus County, NC | 53.1 | Elevated | -4.5 |
| Lancaster County, SC | 49.3 | Normal | -8.3 |
| Iredell County, NC | 45.2 | Normal | -12.4 |
| Lincoln County, NC | 44.7 | Normal | -12.9 |
| Union County, NC | 39.1 | Normal | -18.5 |
Population Peers
| County | Score | Zone | vs. Mecklenburg County |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cook County, IL | 57.7 | Elevated | +0.1 |
| Los Angeles County, CA | 58.3 | Elevated | +0.7 |
| Kings County, NY | 58.6 | Elevated | +1.0 |
| Denton County, TX | 56.5 | Elevated | -1.1 |
| Queens County, NY | 55.8 | Elevated | -1.8 |
Download Data
Export all distress indicators for Mecklenburg County as a CSV file.
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