Maryland County Distress Index
Financial distress scores for all 24 counties in Maryland, scored 0–100 across five domains. A county's score is the share of U.S. counties it is more distressed than; the average Maryland county scores 44.2. 5 counties score high, very high, or extreme.
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
Maryland Snapshot
Maryland County Map
Baltimore city is the most distressed of Maryland's 24 counties
County Distress Index score for Maryland's 24 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
Point to or tap a county for its rank and score. Click it, or tap it twice, to open its page.
Most & Least Distressed
Most Distressed
Least Distressed
Score Distribution
How Maryland's 24 county scores are distributed across the 0–100 scale.
All Maryland Counties
24 counties ranked by distress score. Click column headers to sort.
| State Rank | Nat'l Rank | County | Score | Score Label | Primary Driver |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 94 | Baltimore city | 97 | extreme county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 2 | — | Somerset County | 90 | extreme county distress | Default & Legal |
| 3 | — | Dorchester County | 83 | very high county distress | Delinquency |
| 4 | — | Prince George's County | 78 | high county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 5 | — | Wicomico County | 76 | high county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 6 | — | Allegany County | 64 | moderate-high county distress | Labor |
| 7 | — | Baltimore County | 61 | moderate-high county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 8 | — | Caroline County | 60 | moderate-high county distress | Default & Legal |
| 9 | — | Charles County | 58 | moderate county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 10 | — | Cecil County | 55 | moderate county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 11 | — | Washington County | 52 | moderate county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 12 | — | Worcester County | 39 | low-moderate county distress | Labor |
| 13 | — | Kent County | 35 | low-moderate county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 14 | — | Harford County | 30 | low-moderate county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 15 | — | Garrett County | 26 | low county distress | Labor |
| 16 | — | Talbot County | 25 | low county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 17 | — | Calvert County | 20 | low county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 18 | — | St. Mary's County | 19 | very low county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 19 | — | Frederick County | 19 | very low county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 20 | — | Montgomery County | 18 | very low county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 21 | — | Anne Arundel County | 17 | very low county distress | Default & Legal |
| 22 | — | Queen Anne's County | 13 | very low county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 23 | — | Carroll County | 9 | exceptionally low county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 24 | — | Howard 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.