Cities with the Most People in Financial Distress in 2024

With inflation making it more difficult for Americans to keep up with payments on their loans and lines of credit, WalletHub today released its latest report on the Cities with the Most People in Financial Distress, to shed light on where Americans are having the biggest financial difficulties.

WalletHub compared the 100 largest cities without data limitations across nine key metrics. The data set includes factors like the average credit score, the change in the number of bankruptcy filings between December 2022 and December 2023, and the share of people with accounts in distress.

Most Distressed
1.Chicago, IL
2. Houston, TX
3. New York, NY
4. Los Angeles, CA
5. Dallas, TX
6. Las Vegas, NV
7. San Antonio, TX
8. Atlanta, GA
9. Riverside, CA
10. Jacksonville, FL

Least Distressed

91. Madison, WI
92. Glendale, AZ
93. Jersey City, NJ
94. Pittsburgh, PA
95. Lincoln, NE
96. Des Moines, IA
97. Chandler, AZ
98. Gilbert, AZ
99. Scottsdale, AZ
100. Boise, ID

Top 10 Cities with People in Financial Distress

Cassandra Happe

“Getting out of the downward spiral of financial distress is no easy feat,” Cassandra Happe, WalletHub analyst said. “You may get temporary relief from your lenders by not having to make payments, but all the while interest will keep building up, making the debt even harder to pay off. People who find themselves in financial distress should budget carefully, cut non-essential expenses, and pursue strategies like debt consolidation or debt management to get their situation under control.

“It seems that in the Windy City, people’s financial security is also blowing away,” Happe continued. “The share of Chicago residents who are allowed to skip debt payments due to financial difficulties went up by nearly 30% between Q4 2022 and Q4 2023. Chicago residents also had the third-most accounts in distress per person. Financial distress may increase further, too, as Chicago has some of the highest Google search interest in the country for terms like ‘debt’ and ‘loans,’ which indicates that people need to borrow even more.”

For the full report, click here https://wallethub.com/edu/cities-with-the-most-people-in-financial-distress/133346

 

 

 

Image Sources

  • Cassandra Happe: WalletHub
  • Riverside: Shutterstock