Massachusetts County Distress Index
Financial distress scores for all 14 counties in Massachusetts, scored 0–100 across five domains. A county's score is the share of U.S. counties it is more distressed than; the average Massachusetts county scores 34.0. 1 county scores 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
Massachusetts Snapshot
Massachusetts County Map
Hampden County is the most distressed of Massachusetts's 14 counties
County Distress Index score for Massachusetts's 14 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 Massachusetts's 14 county scores are distributed across the 0–100 scale.
All Massachusetts Counties
14 counties ranked by distress score. Click column headers to sort.
| State Rank | Nat'l Rank | County | Score | Score Label | Primary Driver |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | — | Hampden County | 76 | high county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 2 | — | Bristol County | 51 | moderate county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 3 | — | Suffolk County | 44 | moderate-low county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 4 | — | Berkshire County | 43 | moderate-low county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 5 | — | Franklin County | 37 | low-moderate county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 6 | — | Worcester County | 37 | low-moderate county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 7 | — | Essex County | 37 | low-moderate county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 8 | — | Barnstable County | 32 | low-moderate county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 9 | — | Plymouth County | 30 | low-moderate county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 10 | — | Hampshire County | 23 | low county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 11 | — | Nantucket County | 22 | low county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 12 | — | Norfolk County | 15 | very low county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 13 | — | Middlesex County | 13 | very low county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 14 | — | Dukes County | 9 | exceptionally low county distress | Labor |
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.