---
title: "County Distress Index (CDI)"
slug: cdi
summary: "County-level financial distress index covering 3144 U.S. counties with ranks and score labels."
type: composite_index
frequency: semiannual
release: "County Distress Index, October 2026 release"
released_on: "2026-10-26"
version: "composition-4.data-basis-2026-10-19"
county_count: 3144
last_updated: "2026-09-30"
canonical_html: https://americandefault.org/counties/
---

# County Distress Index (CDI)

> The CDI scores 3144 U.S. counties on a 0–100 scale across five equal-weighted distress domains. A county's score is the share of U.S. counties it is more distressed than. County pages publish national rank, state rank, and score-label wording, not the national American Distress Index band labels; national ranks print only for the top and bottom 100.

## Domains and Weights

| Domain | Weight | Indicators |
|--------|--------|------------|
| Delinquency | 20% | Auto loan delinquency, credit card delinquency, subprime credit share |
| Default & Legal | 20% | Debt in collections and bankruptcy filing rate |
| Debt Burden | 20% | Rent-to-income ratio and severe rent burden |
| Labor | 20% | Unemployment rate (average over the latest year) and share of adults 25-54 not working |
| Safety Net & Buffer | 20% | Poverty, child poverty, disability, uninsured rate, and median household income |

## County Score Labels

| CDI score range | Published wording |
|-----------------|-------------------|
| 0-9 | exceptionally low county distress |
| 10-19 | very low county distress |
| 20-29 | low county distress |
| 30-39 | low-moderate county distress |
| 40-49 | moderate-low county distress |
| 50-59 | moderate county distress |
| 60-69 | moderate-high county distress |
| 70-79 | high county distress |
| 80-89 | very high county distress |
| 90-100 | extreme county distress |

Because the score is a share of counties, each label covers about a tenth of them.

## Methodology Summary

Indicator values are converted to distress-oriented county percentile ranks. Domain scores are the mean of their available indicator percentiles, and the five domain scores average into a composite (composite_mean). The CDI score is the share of the other counties with a lower composite, (n - rank) / (n - 1) x 100, rounded down to a whole number. Ranks sort the composite; the national rank is printed only for the top and bottom 100. The published county label is the score label.

Full methodology: https://americandefault.org/methodology/cdi/

## Endpoints

- County hub: https://americandefault.org/counties/
- Top 100 ranking: https://americandefault.org/top-100-most-distressed-counties/
- Per-county scorecard: https://americandefault.org/counties/{state-slug}/{county-slug}/
- Methodology: https://americandefault.org/methodology/cdi/

## Data Sources

14 source indicators from federal and nonprofit sources: Urban Institute Debt in America (Equifax panel), Equifax subprime-credit data retrieved via Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics LAUS, U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year and SAIPE, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Fair Market Rents, and Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts Table F-5A. All public. No proprietary data.

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.