Consumer Debt by State: Who Owes the Most? (2026)
Credit card delinquency reached 16.3% of balances in Nevada in Q4 2025, compared with a 12.4% national average. 36 of 51 jurisdictions met or exceeded the ADI's 10% threshold. NY Fed Consumer Credit Panel data.
What Does the State Consumer-Debt Dataset Measure?
At the national level, total household debt per adult with a credit file was $63k in Q4 2025, while the credit-card delinquency rate was 12.4% of balances. The state rows use those same units so their levels can be compared without turning balances into a share of people.
36 out of 51 jurisdictions met or exceeded 10% credit-card balance delinquency. Nevada had the highest state rate at 16.3%. These geographic aggregates do not identify why a state's rate differs, whether the same households hold other delinquent products, or what any individual borrower will do next.
At a Glance
The American Distress Index currently reads 43.8 (Typical). On average, its inputs sit higher than in 44% of their own quarterly histories. The ADI's Spread indicator counts jurisdictions at or above its 10% credit-card balance-delinquency threshold. The count is a descriptive geographic measure; it does not identify a structural cause, reproduce a past mortgage cycle, or predict another form of default.
Where Is Credit Card Distress Concentrated?
By Q4 2025, 36 out of 51 jurisdictions had credit-card balance-delinquency rates at or above 10%. The chart shows the stored annual count from 2003 through 2025 using the same threshold.
This is a count of jurisdictions, not households or delinquent accounts. A change in the count does not establish why state rates moved or whether the same borrowers appear in another debt series. The ADI tracks the series as The Spread.
States with Credit Card Delinquency Above 10%
Source: Federal Reserve Bank of New York Consumer Credit Panel / Equifax. Annual Q4 data, 2003-2025.
Full data and trend: The Spread indicator page
Which States Have the Highest Credit Card Delinquency?
The three highest rates in the stored Q4 2025 table are Nevada at 16.3%, Florida at 14.9%, and Louisiana at 14.2%. The credit-panel data establish the ranking, not a shared demographic, wage, housing-cost, or migration explanation.
Credit Card Delinquency Rate by State — Top 15 (Q4 2025)
Source: NY Fed Consumer Credit Panel / Equifax. Delinquency = 90+ days past due as share of balances.
National trend over time: The Late Fee — Credit Card Delinquency Rate indicator page
Which States Had the Largest Increase From the Pre-Pandemic Baseline?
A state's latest level and its change from the pre-pandemic baseline are different calculations. Louisiana had the largest increase in this table — 5.6 percentage points — followed by Georgia (+5.6 percentage points) and West Virginia (+5.6 percentage points). These changes describe state-level balance delinquency, not a velocity of household distress.
The national average rose from 8.1% to 12.4% over the same period — an increase of 4.2 percentage points. State changes can be compared with that national change, but the balance data do not explain the differences or identify the households represented in both periods.
Change in CC Delinquency Rate, 2019 to 2025 (Top 15, percentage points)
Source: NY Fed Consumer Credit Panel / Equifax. Q4 2019 vs Q4 2025.
Geographic spread over time: The Spread — States Crossing 10% Credit Card Delinquency indicator page
All States: Credit Card Delinquency Rates
Credit card delinquency rates for all 50 states and the District of Columbia, ranked highest to lowest. States in red exceed the 10% threshold — the level the ADI uses to classify a state as being in credit distress.
| Rank | State | Q4 2025 | Q4 2024 | Q4 2019 | Change in percentage points (2019-2025) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nevada | 16.3% | 14.5% | 11.5% | +4.8 |
| 2 | Florida | 14.9% | 13.5% | 10.5% | +4.4 |
| 3 | Louisiana | 14.2% | 12.9% | 8.6% | +5.6 |
| 4 | Texas | 14.2% | 13.0% | 9.2% | +5.0 |
| 5 | Georgia | 13.9% | 12.5% | 8.3% | +5.6 |
| 6 | Arkansas | 13.8% | 12.5% | 9.7% | +4.1 |
| 7 | West Virginia | 13.7% | 12.4% | 8.1% | +5.6 |
| 8 | Arizona | 13.7% | 12.1% | 10.4% | +3.3 |
| 9 | Mississippi | 13.4% | 12.5% | 9.5% | +3.9 |
| 10 | South Carolina | 13.4% | 12.1% | 8.2% | +5.2 |
| 11 | Oklahoma | 13.3% | 12.2% | 8.9% | +4.4 |
| 12 | California | 13.2% | 12.0% | 8.7% | +4.5 |
| 13 | New York | 12.9% | 12.0% | 9.0% | +3.9 |
| 14 | North Carolina | 12.5% | 11.3% | 8.2% | +4.3 |
| 15 | Pennsylvania | 12.3% | 11.4% | 8.0% | +4.4 |
| 16 | Alabama | 12.2% | 11.2% | 8.4% | +3.9 |
| 17 | Delaware | 12.2% | 11.3% | 8.6% | +3.7 |
| 18 | New Mexico | 11.9% | 10.6% | 9.0% | +2.9 |
| 19 | Kentucky | 11.8% | 10.9% | 7.8% | +4.0 |
| 20 | Indiana | 11.7% | 10.7% | 7.0% | +4.7 |
| 21 | Maryland | 11.7% | 10.4% | 7.4% | +4.2 |
| 22 | Illinois | 11.6% | 10.4% | 6.6% | +5.0 |
| 23 | Tennessee | 11.6% | 10.5% | 7.8% | +3.8 |
| 24 | New Jersey | 11.4% | 10.4% | 7.5% | +3.9 |
| 25 | Rhode Island | 11.4% | 10.4% | 8.1% | +3.3 |
| 26 | Missouri | 11.3% | 10.7% | 7.7% | +3.7 |
| 27 | Michigan | 11.3% | 10.5% | 6.9% | +4.4 |
| 28 | District of Columbia | 11.2% | 10.8% | 6.5% | +4.6 |
| 29 | Ohio | 11.1% | 10.4% | 7.4% | +3.7 |
| 30 | Colorado | 11.1% | 9.8% | 6.5% | +4.6 |
| 31 | Kansas | 10.7% | 9.9% | 6.4% | +4.3 |
| 32 | Wyoming | 10.5% | 9.1% | 7.5% | +3.0 |
| 33 | Connecticut | 10.5% | 9.9% | 7.1% | +3.5 |
| 34 | Massachusetts | 10.3% | 9.6% | 7.2% | +3.1 |
| 35 | Iowa | 10.3% | 9.6% | 7.0% | +3.3 |
| 36 | Hawaii | 10.2% | 9.4% | 7.2% | +3.0 |
| 37 | Virginia | 9.8% | 8.9% | 6.6% | +3.3 |
| 38 | New Hampshire | 9.8% | 8.9% | 6.6% | +3.2 |
| 39 | Maine | 9.8% | 8.8% | 6.2% | +3.6 |
| 40 | Alaska | 9.8% | 9.2% | 6.6% | +3.2 |
| 41 | Montana | 9.8% | 8.7% | 7.0% | +2.7 |
| 42 | Nebraska | 9.8% | 9.2% | 6.7% | +3.1 |
| 43 | Idaho | 9.5% | 8.8% | 6.8% | +2.7 |
| 44 | Oregon | 9.5% | 8.5% | 6.3% | +3.2 |
| 45 | Utah | 9.4% | 7.9% | 5.8% | +3.6 |
| 46 | Washington | 9.3% | 8.3% | 5.8% | +3.5 |
| 47 | South Dakota | 9.1% | 8.8% | 6.3% | +2.8 |
| 48 | North Dakota | 9.0% | 8.1% | 5.6% | +3.4 |
| 49 | Vermont | 9.0% | 8.1% | 5.8% | +3.2 |
| 50 | Minnesota | 8.6% | 7.9% | 6.1% | +2.5 |
| 51 | Wisconsin | 8.0% | 7.6% | 5.5% | +2.6 |
| — | National Average | 12.4% | 11.2% | 8.1% | +4.2 |
Which States Have the Worst Auto Loan Delinquency?
Credit-card and auto-loan delinquency can be compared geographically because this table reports both measures for the same state and period. An overlap means a state ranks high on two separate aggregate balance-based measures; it does not show that the same households missed both payments, that credit cards came first, that borrowers exhausted a buffer, or that mortgage delinquency will follow. The products also differ in collateral, underwriting, borrower population, and balance denominator. See default-rate definitions for the distinct series scopes.
| Rank | State | Auto Delinq Q4 2025 | CC Delinq Q4 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | District of Columbia | 13.6% | 11.2% |
| 2 | Mississippi | 7.7% | 13.4% |
| 3 | Georgia | 7.0% | 13.9% |
| 4 | Alabama | 6.5% | 12.2% |
| 5 | Louisiana | 6.5% | 14.2% |
| 6 | Indiana | 6.3% | 11.7% |
| 7 | Michigan | 6.3% | 11.3% |
| 8 | South Carolina | 6.2% | 13.4% |
| 9 | Nevada | 6.2% | 16.3% |
| 10 | Delaware | 6.1% | 12.2% |
| 11 | New Mexico | 6.1% | 11.9% |
| 12 | North Carolina | 6.1% | 12.5% |
| 13 | Maryland | 6.0% | 11.7% |
| 14 | Texas | 5.8% | 14.2% |
| 15 | Tennessee | 5.7% | 11.6% |
National auto loan trend: The Repo Line — Auto Loan Serious Delinquency Rate indicator page
Which States Have the Most Debt Per Person?
Total debt per credit-file adult and credit-card balance delinquency answer different questions. A state can rank high on one and lower on the other; neither measure supplies the reason. The table does not establish underwriting quality, household repayment capacity, or which people appear in both aggregates. Explore individual state profiles for the other separately measured indicators and local resources.
| Rank | State | Total Debt/Capita | CC Delinq Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | District of Columbia | $102k | 11.2% |
| 2 | Colorado | $93k | 11.1% |
| 3 | California | $88k | 13.2% |
| 4 | Washington | $86k | 9.3% |
| 5 | Hawaii | $83k | 10.2% |
| 6 | Utah | $83k | 9.4% |
| 7 | Maryland | $81k | 11.7% |
| 8 | Massachusetts | $77k | 10.3% |
| 9 | Virginia | $77k | 9.8% |
| 10 | Nevada | $71k | 16.3% |
| 11 | Arizona | $71k | 13.7% |
| 12 | Oregon | $70k | 9.5% |
| 13 | New Jersey | $70k | 11.4% |
| 14 | Alaska | $69k | 9.8% |
| 15 | Idaho | $69k | 9.5% |
Data Sources and Methodology
NY Fed Consumer Credit Panel
All state-level data on this page comes from the NY Fed's nationally representative 5% sample of Equifax credit reports. State figures represent Q4 (year-end) snapshots, published annually by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Delinquency = balances 90+ days past due as % of total balances.
Per-Capita Methodology
Per-capita figures are computed using the adult population with a credit file, not total state population. This matters: states with younger populations or more unbanked residents may undercount true debt burden. The ADI tracks geographic spread via The Spread indicator.
Citation
State Level Household Debt Statistics 2003-2025, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, February 2026 For national consumer debt trends across all categories, see the Consumer Debt Statistics 2026 roundup page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which state has the highest credit card delinquency rate?
Nevada has the highest stored state rate at 16.3% of balances as of Q4 2025, followed by Florida (14.9%) and Louisiana (14.2%). The ranking does not establish a shared cause or borrower profile.
What is the average credit card delinquency rate in the U.S.?
The national average credit card delinquency rate is 12.4% as of Q4 2025 (balances 90+ days past due). This is up from 8.1% in Q4 2019 — an increase of +4.2 percentage points. But state-level variation is enormous, ranging from 8.0% in Wisconsin to 16.3% in Nevada.
How does credit card debt vary by state?
The stored Q4 2025 state rates range from 8.0% of balances in Wisconsin to 16.3% in Nevada. 36 of 51 jurisdictions met or exceeded the ADI's 10% threshold. The data do not identify why the rates differ.
What is national total debt per capita?
Total consumer debt per adult with a credit file stands at $63k nationally as of Q4 2025. It is a different measure from credit-card balance delinquency and does not identify household repayment capacity.
How does state-level consumer debt connect to the American Distress Index?
The ADI tracks geographic spread through The Spread indicator — currently 36 jurisdictions at or above the 10% credit-card balance-delinquency threshold. That count is descriptive; it does not establish a structural cause, a repeat of an earlier mortgage cycle, or what any borrower will do next.