Maine County Distress Index
Financial distress scores for all 16 counties in Maine, scored 0–100 across five domains. A county's score is the share of U.S. counties it is more distressed than; the average Maine county scores 34.4.
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 | Scores as of Aug 2026
Maine Snapshot
Maine County Map
Washington County is the most distressed of Maine's 16 counties
County Distress Index score for Maine's 16 counties, from green (least distressed, 0–29) to red (most distressed, 80–100). Data from 2024 to Aug 2026.
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County Distress Index score · data from 2024 to Aug 2026
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Most & Least Distressed
Most Distressed
Least Distressed
Score Distribution
How Maine's 16 county scores are distributed across the 0–100 scale.
All Maine Counties
16 counties ranked by distress score. Click column headers to sort.
| State Rank | Nat'l Rank | County | Score | Score Label | Primary Driver |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | — | Washington County | 60 | moderate-high county distress | Labor |
| 2 | — | Somerset County | 56 | moderate county distress | Labor |
| 3 | — | Aroostook County | 54 | moderate county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 4 | — | Piscataquis County | 52 | moderate county distress | Labor |
| 5 | — | Androscoggin County | 47 | moderate-low county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 6 | — | Oxford County | 45 | moderate-low county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 7 | — | Penobscot County | 44 | moderate-low county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 8 | — | Waldo County | 35 | low-moderate county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 9 | — | Franklin County | 34 | low-moderate county distress | Safety Net & Buffer |
| 10 | — | Hancock County | 30 | low-moderate county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 11 | — | Kennebec County | 28 | low county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 12 | — | Knox County | 16 | very low county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 13 | — | York County | 12 | very low county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 14 | — | Sagadahoc County | 11 | very low county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 15 | — | Lincoln County | 10 | very low county distress | Safety Net & Buffer |
| 16 | — | Cumberland County | 8 | exceptionally low county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
How County Scores Work
Each county is scored 0–100 using five equal-weighted domains. Each domain averages its member indicators' county ranks, the domains are averaged, and that average is ranked against every U.S. county. So a county's score is the share of U.S. counties it is more distressed than. National ranks are shown only for the 100 most and 100 least distressed counties, because ranks in between move between updates. Counties with identical composite scores share a rank, marked T- for tied.
Urban Institute data: Breno Braga, Signe-Mary McKernan, Samantha Atherton, and Kassandra Martinchek, "Debt in America," last updated November 20, 2025, https://datacatalog.urban.org/dataset/debt-america-2025. Licensed under ODC-By 1.0. The County Distress Index is American Default Research's own calculation; the Urban Institute does not produce or endorse it.