The most distressed counties in America
All 3,144 U.S. counties ranked by the County Distress Index — a composite score built from five equal-weighted domains: delinquency, default and legal, debt burden, labor, and safety net and buffer. Higher scores mean more household financial distress.
| Rank | County | State | Score | Score Label | Population | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Washington County | MS | 93.1 | extreme county distress | 41,946 | Profile |
| 2 | Holmes County | MS | 92.7 | extreme county distress | 15,777 | Profile |
| 3 | Petersburg city | VA | 92.5 | extreme county distress | 33,309 | Profile |
| 4 | Coahoma County | MS | 92.1 | extreme county distress | 20,077 | Profile |
| 5 | Dallas County | AL | 91.9 | extreme county distress | 36,165 | Profile |
| 6 | Leflore County | MS | 91.8 | extreme county distress | 26,378 | Profile |
| 7 | Dougherty County | GA | 91.8 | extreme county distress | 82,645 | Profile |
| 8 | Noxubee County | MS | 91.0 | extreme county distress | 9,914 | Profile |
| 9 | Wilcox County | AL | 90.9 | extreme county distress | 9,944 | Profile |
| 10 | East Carroll Parish | LA | 90.9 | extreme county distress | 6,829 | Profile |
| 11 | Phillips County | AR | 90.5 | extreme county distress | 14,961 | Profile |
| 12 | Williamsburg County | SC | 90.5 | extreme county distress | 29,891 | Profile |
| 13 | Gadsden County | FL | 90.3 | extreme county distress | 43,833 | Profile |
| 14 | Pemiscot County | MO | 90.2 | extreme county distress | 14,613 | Profile |
| 15 | Yazoo County | MS | 89.9 | very high county distress | 25,796 | Profile |
| 16 | Tunica County | MS | 89.9 | very high county distress | 9,234 | Profile |
| 17 | Morehouse Parish | LA | 89.9 | very high county distress | 23,955 | Profile |
| 18 | Hancock County | GA | 89.7 | very high county distress | 8,676 | Profile |
| 19 | Hopewell city | VA | 89.3 | very high county distress | 22,752 | Profile |
| 20 | Crittenden County | AR | 89.0 | very high county distress | 47,139 | Profile |
| 21 | Desha County | AR | 88.7 | very high county distress | 10,479 | Profile |
| 22 | Humphreys County | MS | 88.0 | very high county distress | 7,216 | Profile |
| 23 | Bell County | KY | 88.0 | very high county distress | 23,317 | Profile |
| 24 | Concordia Parish | LA | 87.8 | very high county distress | 17,688 | Profile |
| 25 | Bolivar County | MS | 87.6 | very high county distress | 28,968 | Profile |
| 26 | Bibb County | GA | 87.4 | very high county distress | 156,512 | Profile |
| 27 | Baltimore city | MD | 87.3 | very high county distress | 565,239 | Profile |
| 28 | Richmond County | GA | 87.2 | very high county distress | 205,414 | Profile |
| 29 | Edgecombe County | NC | 86.6 | very high county distress | 48,832 | Profile |
| 30 | Madison Parish | LA | 86.6 | very high county distress | 9,246 | Profile |
| 31 | Sumter County | AL | 86.5 | very high county distress | 11,727 | Profile |
| 32 | Caddo Parish | LA | 86.4 | very high county distress | 226,386 | Profile |
| 33 | Lee County | AR | 86.3 | very high county distress | 8,201 | Profile |
| 34 | Greene County | AL | 86.3 | very high county distress | 7,341 | Profile |
| 35 | Wayne County | MI | 86.2 | very high county distress | 1,751,169 | Profile |
| 36 | Knox County | KY | 86.2 | very high county distress | 29,794 | Profile |
| 37 | St. Bernard Parish | LA | 85.9 | very high county distress | 44,463 | Profile |
| 38 | Chicot County | AR | 85.9 | very high county distress | 9,538 | Profile |
| 39 | Bronx County | NY | 85.7 | very high county distress | 1,356,476 | Profile |
| 40 | Natchitoches Parish | LA | 85.6 | very high county distress | 36,291 | Profile |
| 41 | Bamberg County | SC | 85.6 | very high county distress | 12,974 | Profile |
| 42 | McCreary County | KY | 85.5 | very high county distress | 17,050 | Profile |
| 43 | Halifax County | NC | 85.5 | very high county distress | 47,298 | Profile |
| 44 | Macon County | AL | 85.4 | very high county distress | 18,370 | Profile |
| 45 | St. Francis County | AR | 85.3 | very high county distress | 22,101 | Profile |
| 46 | Hamilton County | FL | 85.2 | very high county distress | 13,471 | Profile |
| 47 | Martinsville city | VA | 85.1 | very high county distress | 13,763 | Profile |
| 48 | Clayton County | GA | 85.1 | very high county distress | 298,300 | Profile |
| 49 | Sharkey County | MS | 85.1 | very high county distress | 3,336 | Profile |
| 50 | Clay County | KY | 85.1 | very high county distress | 19,648 | Profile |
| 51 | Danville city | VA | 85.0 | very high county distress | 41,837 | Profile |
| 52 | Terrell County | GA | 84.9 | very high county distress | 8,718 | Profile |
| 53 | Marlboro County | SC | 84.7 | very high county distress | 25,704 | Profile |
| 54 | Fulton County | KY | 84.6 | very high county distress | 6,338 | Profile |
| 55 | Mitchell County | GA | 84.5 | very high county distress | 21,114 | Profile |
| 56 | Magoffin County | KY | 84.5 | very high county distress | 11,228 | Profile |
| 57 | Pike County | MS | 84.5 | very high county distress | 39,394 | Profile |
| 58 | Early County | GA | 84.5 | very high county distress | 10,563 | Profile |
| 58 | Claiborne Parish | LA | 84.5 | very high county distress | 13,670 | Profile |
| 60 | Starr County | TX | 84.4 | very high county distress | 65,934 | Profile |
| 61 | Mississippi County | MO | 84.4 | very high county distress | 11,822 | Profile |
| 62 | Webster Parish | LA | 84.4 | very high county distress | 35,238 | Profile |
| 63 | Orleans Parish | LA | 84.3 | very high county distress | 364,136 | Profile |
| 64 | Harlan County | KY | 84.2 | very high county distress | 25,324 | Profile |
| 65 | Perry County | AL | 84.2 | very high county distress | 7,738 | Profile |
| 66 | Catahoula Parish | LA | 84.2 | very high county distress | 8,414 | Profile |
| 67 | Emporia city | VA | 84.1 | very high county distress | 5,463 | Profile |
| 68 | Jefferson County | AR | 84.1 | very high county distress | 63,661 | Profile |
| 69 | Martin County | KY | 84.0 | very high county distress | 10,928 | Profile |
| 70 | Vance County | NC | 83.8 | very high county distress | 42,301 | Profile |
| 71 | Hale County | AL | 83.8 | very high county distress | 14,888 | Profile |
| 72 | Tensas Parish | LA | 83.7 | very high county distress | 3,764 | Profile |
| 73 | Christian County | KY | 83.7 | very high county distress | 72,032 | Profile |
| 74 | Floyd County | KY | 83.6 | very high county distress | 34,423 | Profile |
| 75 | Wilkinson County | MS | 83.6 | very high county distress | 8,058 | Profile |
| 76 | Seminole County | OK | 83.6 | very high county distress | 23,565 | Profile |
| 77 | Portsmouth city | VA | 83.5 | very high county distress | 96,793 | Profile |
| 78 | Crisp County | GA | 83.5 | very high county distress | 19,631 | Profile |
| 79 | Bienville Parish | LA | 83.5 | very high county distress | 12,366 | Profile |
| 80 | Marshall County | MS | 83.4 | very high county distress | 34,123 | Profile |
| 81 | Russell County | AL | 83.3 | very high county distress | 58,744 | Profile |
| 82 | Burke County | GA | 83.3 | very high county distress | 24,438 | Profile |
| 83 | Orangeburg County | SC | 83.2 | very high county distress | 82,820 | Profile |
| 84 | Hinds County | MS | 83.2 | very high county distress | 214,870 | Profile |
| 85 | Adams County | MS | 83.2 | very high county distress | 28,746 | Profile |
| 86 | Jefferson County | MS | 83.1 | very high county distress | 6,941 | Profile |
| 87 | Cumberland County | NJ | 83.0 | very high county distress | 152,326 | Profile |
| 88 | Hardeman County | TN | 83.0 | very high county distress | 25,567 | Profile |
| 89 | Pike County | KY | 82.8 | very high county distress | 55,973 | Profile |
| 90 | Telfair County | GA | 82.7 | very high county distress | 10,920 | Profile |
| 91 | Wayne County | KY | 82.6 | very high county distress | 19,580 | Profile |
| 92 | Claiborne County | MS | 82.6 | very high county distress | 8,617 | Profile |
| 93 | Robeson County | NC | 82.6 | very high county distress | 117,365 | Profile |
| 94 | Scotland County | NC | 82.5 | very high county distress | 34,376 | Profile |
| 95 | Lee County | SC | 82.4 | very high county distress | 15,967 | Profile |
| 96 | Adair County | OK | 82.4 | very high county distress | 19,627 | Profile |
| 97 | Sunflower County | MS | 82.2 | very high county distress | 24,468 | Profile |
| 98 | St. Helena Parish | LA | 82.2 | very high county distress | 10,774 | Profile |
| 99 | Muskogee County | OK | 82.2 | very high county distress | 66,677 | Profile |
| 100 | Tangipahoa Parish | LA | 82.1 | very high county distress | 138,064 | Profile |
How the ranking is built
The County Distress Index scores all 3,144 U.S. counties on a 0 to 100 scale using five equal-weighted domains: delinquency, default and legal, debt burden, labor, and safety net and buffer. Each input is ranked against the current county cross-section, then averaged within its domain, then averaged across the five domains.
Source data: the Urban Institute Debt in America dataset, U.S. Census Bureau SAIPE and ACS, Bureau of Labor Statistics LAUS and QCEW, U.S. Courts bankruptcy statistics, and HUD Fair Market Rents. Rank #1 is the most distressed county in the current cross-section; score labels translate the 0 to 100 score into plain-language distress ranges.
For journalists and researchers
The ranking is free to cite and redistribute with attribution. Every county row links to a detailed county profile with domain breakdowns and source context. Download the full ranking as CSV or JSON, or ingest the machine-readable Dataset schema embedded in this page.
More distress rankings
Three more views of household distress, each from its own source. See the most distressed county in every state, bankruptcy filing rates by county from U.S. Courts data, and where the job market is strong and the bills go unpaid.
Frequently asked questions
Which county is the most distressed in America?
As of the most recent CDI release, Washington County, Mississippi ranks first with a composite score of 93.1 on the 0 to 100 scale. The ranking is recomputed annually as new Census ACS and Urban Institute Debt in America data become available.
How often is the ranking updated?
The County Distress Index refreshes annually, aligned to the Census American Community Survey release window and the Urban Institute Debt in America update. The current release compiled on Jul 28, 2026. Individual indicator time series on the indicator pages update more frequently — monthly for employment, quarterly for NY Fed consumer credit data.
Why five equal-weighted domains?
The CDI method uses one yardstick across geographies: five domains with equal weight, each built from the percentile ranks of its member inputs. That keeps county ranks comparable without fitted weights or retired cutoffs. Full technical detail: /methodology/cdi/.
Can I download the full ranking?
Yes. Download every U.S. county ranked by the County Distress Index as CSV or JSON — free to use with attribution. A machine-readable Dataset schema is also embedded on this page for LLMs and research tools.
Is this the same as the American Distress Index?
No. The American Distress Index (ADI) tracks national household distress over time using quarterly time-series data. The CDI is cross-sectional — it compares counties at a single point in time. Both use a 0 to 100 scale, but the national ADI publishes time-axis bands while county pages publish ranks and score labels.