Rhode Island County Distress Index
Financial distress scores for all 5 counties in Rhode Island, scored 0–100 across five domains. A county's score is the share of U.S. counties it is more distressed than; the average Rhode Island county scores 26.2.
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
Rhode Island Snapshot
Rhode Island County Map
Providence County is the most distressed of Rhode Island's 5 counties
County Distress Index score for Rhode Island's 5 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 Rhode Island's 5 county scores are distributed across the 0–100 scale.
All Rhode Island Counties
5 counties ranked by distress score. Click column headers to sort.
| State Rank | Nat'l Rank | County | Score | Score Label | Primary Driver |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | — | Providence County | 65 | moderate-high county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 2 | — | Kent County | 31 | low-moderate county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 3 | — | Newport County | 16 | very low county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 4 | — | Washington County | 10 | very low county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 5 | — | Bristol County | 7 | 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.