New Hampshire

How New Hampshire ranks among the states

New Hampshire residents carry more debt than people in most states, yet few of them fall behind on it. At the end of 2025, household debt came to $66,480 per person with a credit report, the 17th highest among the 50 states and D.C., against $63,200 nationwide (Federal Reserve Bank of New York). New Hampshire’s 2025 bankruptcy filing rate was the 4th lowest (see bankruptcy).

New Hampshire has been among the 15 least distressed states in every quarter since mid-2006

How many counties does New Hampshire have? Ten, and Coos is the most distressed

New Hampshire has 10 counties, and Coos County, at the state’s northern end, is the most distressed of them on our County Distress Index, at 47. That index rates how strained household budgets are in all of the nation’s counties. Coos also had the state’s highest poverty rate in 2024, 13.8%, by the Census Bureau’s estimate. Even so, Coos sits in the less distressed half of the nation’s 3,144 counties: a score of 47 means it is more distressed than 47% of them. No New Hampshire county scores 50 or more, though 1,572 counties nationwide do. None of them is among the nation’s 100 most or 100 least distressed. Rockingham County, on the Seacoast, is the state’s least distressed, at 7.

Every county, by score

Of New Hampshire’s 10 counties, 9 score under 30, and Coos alone falls between 30 and 49. No county reaches 50, the point where a county would be more distressed than half the nation’s.

Every New Hampshire county, ranked →

Is northern New Hampshire more distressed than the rest of the state? Only Coos County is

Only Coos is; the other two northern counties, Grafton and Carroll, are not. We sorted the 10 counties into three groups of our own and averaged their County Distress Index scores, weighting each county by its population. The three northern counties average 17, close to the 18 of the five counties in neither the north nor the south. Hillsborough and Rockingham, home to 53.4% of the state’s people, average 13, the lowest of the three.

The northern average hides a split. Coos scores 47, while Grafton scores 9 and Carroll 13. Without Coos, the north would average below the south. The north does have the highest poverty of the three groups, 9.8%.

Coos leads the state on four of the five parts of our county score: late payments; collections and bankruptcy; jobs; and the part built from poverty, income, health coverage and disability. Its jobs part averages 12 months of unemployment with the share of prime-age adults not working, so it can differ from the single month in the table below. Renters’ costs are the exception. The averages show where the strain sits, not why. Every county’s page, ranked →

What changed in New Hampshire in the past year

Three of the four changes below show up on electric bills; the fourth is a federal disaster declaration for June flooding in Carroll County.

1. Oct. 7, 2026

   A federal disaster declaration covered June’s storm and flooding in Carroll County

   The President declared a major disaster for the severe storm and flooding of June 10 and 11, 2026, naming Carroll County as the primary county, a U.S. Small Business Administration notice says. The declaration covers Public Assistance only, the federal program for public bodies and some nonprofits rather than individual households. Under the notice, the only applicants for disaster loans are private nonprofits that provide government-type services, with a Dec. 7, 2026 deadline for physical damage.

   U.S. Small Business Administration notice, Federal Register, Oct. 20, 2026

2. Aug. 1, 2026

   Eversource set a new electricity supply rate for homes

   Eversource’s default supply rate for homes is 14.009 cents per kilowatt-hour for Aug. 1, 2026 through Jan. 31, 2027, the company’s rate page shows. The supply rate changes twice a year, on Feb. 1 and Aug. 1. Supply is one part of the bill; delivery charges are set separately.

   Eversource, New Hampshire electric supply rates

3. June 18, 2026

   Regulators approved Liberty’s new supply rates, partly on a provisional basis

   The New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission approved the default electricity supply rates of Liberty, an electric utility, for Aug. 1, 2026, on a partly provisional basis (Order No. 28,231). Liberty had reported an $8.5 million shortfall for its small-customer group over the past year. The commission kept the charge that recovers such shortfalls at its old level for now and opened a further review (see what to watch).

   New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission, Docket DE 26-023, supplemental order of notice, July 29, 2026

4. Dec. 15, 2025

   Regulators approved new energy-efficiency charges for electric bills from Jan. 1

   In a December 2025 order, the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission approved cutting Eversource’s residential energy-efficiency charge to 0.485 cents per kilowatt-hour, from 0.606 cents, to take effect Jan. 1, 2026. Liberty, Unitil and the New Hampshire Electric Cooperative were to set theirs at 0.628 cents. The piece of the bill that funds the Electric Assistance Program was to stay at 0.150 cents.

   New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission, Order No. 28,197, Dec. 15, 2025

Is New Hampshire expensive to live in? Rent runs above the national median, but incomes run higher still

Rent is high here, but so is income. New Hampshire’s median rent was $1,491 a month over 2020 to 2024, the 16th highest among the 50 states and D.C. and above the U.S. median of $1,413 (Census Bureau). A year of that rent comes to 17.8% of the 2024 median income of all households, owners included,, against 20.8% for the whole country, by our calculation.

Homeowners are the group that looks worse against the nation. Over 2020 to 2024, 24.6% of them spent 30% or more of their income on housing, more than the U.S. share. We hold no property tax figures, so we can’t say how much of that cost is taxes; the state’s Department of Revenue Administration explains how the tax works.

We don’t measure prices, so we don’t rank the overall cost of living. One recent change to household bills, Eversource’s new electricity supply rate from Aug. 1, is covered under what changed.

What is New Hampshire’s unemployment rate? One of the lowest, with incomes near the top

One of the lowest. New Hampshire’s jobless rate was 2.8% in August 2026, the 5th lowest among the 50 states and D.C., while the national rate was 4.1% (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics). Incomes rank near the top. The typical household earned $100,364 in 2024, the 6th highest (Census Bureau), and income per resident came to $83,192, the 9th highest (U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis).

The rate has eased over the year: it was 3.1% in August 2025. A newer figure is out, too. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics put September at 2.6%, a preliminary number, in its Oct. 20 release. Our state rankings stay on August, the newest month we hold for every state.

The chart below follows New Hampshire’s jobless rate month by month since 1990, beside the rate for the whole country.

Cheshire and Hillsborough had the highest county jobless rates in August, and Carroll the lowest

Does New Hampshire have an income tax? Not on wages

No, New Hampshire doesn’t tax wages. Its tax on interest and dividends is repealed for tax periods beginning after Dec. 31, 2024, the New Hampshire Department of Revenue Administration says. We hold no tax figures, and taxes aren’t part of the State Distress Index.

The state’s minimum wage follows the federal one, $7.25 an hour, New Hampshire’s labor department says. Unemployment claims are filed with New Hampshire Employment Security. Is New Hampshire poor? →

Is New Hampshire a poor state? No state has had a lower poverty rate in the Census Bureau’s estimates since 1989

Far from it. In 2024, 7.3% of New Hampshire residents lived below the poverty line, the lowest rate among the 50 states and D.C., against 12.1% for the country (Census Bureau, Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates). Child poverty is low too: 7.0% of children lived in poverty, lowest among the states and D.C., against 15.5% nationwide.

The lowest rate is nothing new for New Hampshire. In every year of the bureau’s Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates since 1989, no state has come in lower; in 2006, Maryland matched it. The chart below shows New Hampshire’s rate beside the nation’s over those years.

About as many people get SNAP as before the pandemic

In July 2026, 72,987 New Hampshire residents got SNAP, the federal food benefit once called food stamps, by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s count. That was 5.2% of the 2025 population, tied for 3rd lowest among the states, against 10.5% nationally. The count was 3.2% lower than in July 2025 and close to the 72,302 averaged from October 2019 to February 2020.

Older than most states, yet benefits are a smaller share of income

New Hampshire’s population is older than most states’ (see the population). Benefit payments, such as Social Security and Medicare, made up 16.1% of residents’ income in 2024, less than the 18.3% nationwide (U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis). We haven’t measured how age shapes the state’s jobs or incomes.

Why New Hampshire’s poverty rate differs from site to site

Sites that quote the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey print a slightly different rate for New Hampshire. We use the bureau’s Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates for the state and all 10 counties, so every rate on this page comes from one source. Aid programs use a different yardstick, the federal poverty guideline: $15,960 a year for a one-person household in 2026 (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services). Behind on bills →

Are New Hampshire households behind on their bills? Less often than most, though they owe more

Less often than households in most states. In early 2025, 11.7% of New Hampshire residents with a credit record had a debt 90 or more days late, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia reports. The share for the whole country, our population-weighted average of the states, was 17.2%. This is household debt, not state government debt.

The chart below sets New Hampshire beside the nation on collections and on three kinds of loans 90 days or more behind. The state comes in lower on all four.

New Hampshire residents were less likely than Americans overall to be far behind on a card, car loan or mortgage, or to have a debt in collections, in early 2025

Borrowers 90 days or more behind on each kind of loan, and people with a credit record who had a debt sent to collectors, New Hampshire and the U.S., first quarter of 2025.

People with a debt in collections

N.H. 8.9% U.S. 13.2%

Card borrowers 90+ days late

N.H. 9.6% U.S. 13.5%

Car-loan borrowers 90+ days late

N.H. 4.6% U.S. 8.5%

Mortgage borrowers 90+ days late

N.H. 0.7% U.S. 1.2%

Counted up from the lowest share, New Hampshire is 8th lowest on collections, 10th lowest on cards, tied for 3rd lowest on car loans and tied for 3rd lowest on mortgages. Each U.S. bar is our population-weighted average of the states.

A larger share of card borrowers were far behind in early 2025 than before the pandemic. At the end of 2019, 7.8% of New Hampshire card borrowers were 90 days or more behind; by early 2025 the share was 9.6%. Debts in collections went the other way, from 15.4% of residents with a credit record at the end of 2019 to 8.9%.

Nationwide, the three credit bureaus announced in March 2022 that they would stop reporting certain medical collections. The share of people with a medical collection on their credit record then fell from about 14% to about 5% by June 2023 (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau). Most of New Hampshire’s fall came before mid-2022, and we can’t say how much of it those changes explain. A debt dropped from a report may still be owed.

Bankruptcy in New Hampshire: one of the lowest filing rates in the country

New Hampshire residents filed 935 bankruptcy cases in 2025, 66.1 for every 100,000 residents (2025 population), the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts reports. That was the 4th lowest rate among the 50 states and D.C., far under the national rate of 166.3. Filings slipped 1.8% from 2024, while they rose 11.1% nationwide.

New Hampshire hasn’t always ranked this low. Ranked by each year’s filings per resident, New Hampshire placed between 28th and 40th highest every year from 2006 to 2019, by our calculation. Since 2020 it has stayed among the 10 lowest of the 50 states and D.C. on this measure.

Filings are about half what they were before the pandemic. The state counted 1,812 cases in 2019, about twice as many as in 2025. The fewest in the available series, 675, came in 2022.

Chapter 13 cases, in which a filer repays some or all of their debts through a court-approved plan of three to five years, were 27.7% of New Hampshire’s 2025 filings, against 35.9% nationally. The table below shows filings in selected years.

Does foreclosure in New Hampshire go through a court? Not when the mortgage allows a sale

Not necessarily. State law lets a lender foreclose by selling the home under the power of sale written into the mortgage, without a lawsuit (RSA 479:25). For a home mortgage, the lender must send the owner notice of the sale by registered or certified mail at least 45 days ahead (RSA 479:25).

The sale must also be advertised in a newspaper once a week for three weeks, the first time at least 20 days before the sale. Every such notice must tell the owner of the right to ask the superior court to stop the sale. An owner who doesn’t go to court before the sale can’t later challenge whether the foreclosure was valid. The owner can redeem the mortgage by paying everything owed, plus costs, before the foreclosure (RSA 479:18).

We found no right to buy the home back after the sale in chapter 479 of the state’s laws. The foreclosure deed must be recorded within 60 days of the sale (RSA 479:26). Federal rules generally bar a mortgage company from starting foreclosure on an owner-occupied home until the borrower is more than 120 days behind.

Few New Hampshire mortgages are behind at all. In September 2025, 1.3% of the state’s mortgages were 30 to 89 days late, against 1.6% nationally (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau). The state was awarded $50.0 million from the federal Homeowner Assistance Fund and had helped 3,295 households by the state’s report for the first quarter of 2026 (U.S. Treasury).

New Hampshire mortgage complaints to the CFPB: modification and foreclosure trouble comes up most

From 2012 to October 2026, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau logged 2,369 mortgage complaints from New Hampshire. Loan modification, collection and foreclosure came up most often, in 898 of them. Trouble during the payment process came next, in 450.

What to watch before the next edition

Each item below, nearest first, takes its date from the source linked with it.

1. Nov. 1, 2026

   Enrollment opens for 2027 marketplace health plans

   Open enrollment on HealthCare.gov for 2027 plans runs from Nov. 1, 2026 to Jan. 15, 2027. Dec. 15 is the last day to sign up for coverage that starts Jan. 1, the site says.

   HealthCare.gov, dates and deadlines

2. Nov. 17, 2026

   The utilities commission holds a hearing on how Liberty sets its supply rates

   The New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission has scheduled a 10 a.m. hearing on how Liberty estimates market prices for part of its default supply and when it settles past shortfalls and surpluses with customers (Docket DE 26-023).

   New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission, Docket DE 26-023, supplemental order of notice, July 29, 2026

3. Nov. 20, 2026

   State jobless rates for October are due

   The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics is scheduled to publish each state’s October unemployment rate, with November’s to follow on Dec. 18. The September figures came out on Oct. 20 (see the unemployment rate).

   U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, release schedule

4. Nov. 30, 2026

   Utilities want their 2027 to 2029 energy-efficiency plan approved by this date

   Eversource, Unitil, Liberty and the New Hampshire Electric Cooperative, with two gas utilities, asked the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission to approve their three-year energy-efficiency plan by Nov. 30 (Docket DE 26-043). Such plans are paid for by charges on electric and gas bills and by a state energy-efficiency fund, the commission’s notice says.

   New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission, Docket DE 26-043, notice of July 29, 2026

Where New Hampshire ranks highest and lowest