American households have around $18.79 trillion in debt, and the personal-finance company WalletHub today released its new report on the States Where People Are the Most Delinquent on Debt to show where people are at the biggest risk of credit score damage and other negative consequences.
To highlight the places where people are having the most trouble paying their debts, WalletHub analyzed proprietary user data from Q1 2026 for each of the 50 states. In our ranking, we considered both the percentage of individual tradelines that were delinquent and the percentage of residents’ total loan balances that were delinquent.
| Most Delinquent | Least Delinquent |
| 1. Mississippi | 41. Hawaii |
| 2. Louisiana | 42. Massachusetts |
| 3. Arkansas | 43. California |
| 4. West Virginia | 44. Washington |
| 5. Alabama | 45. Colorado |
| 6. South Carolina | 46. Wisconsin |
| 7. Delaware | 47. Montana |
| 8. North Carolina | 48. Utah |
| 9. Tennessee | 49. Vermont |
| 10. Texas | 50. Iowa |
For the full report and to see where your state ranks, please visit:
https://wallethub.com/edu/
“Being delinquent on debt can lead to fees, credit score damage, increased interest rates and other negative repercussions. That’s why it’s important to get current as quickly as possible. For many types of debt, you will have at least 30 days after your due date to make your payment before the lender officially reports it as ‘late’ to the credit bureaus. Many lenders also offer hardship programs that can allow you to temporarily forgo payments due to financial difficulty.”
–
“Mississippi has the biggest debt delinquency problem, with around 13.8% of individual loans and lines of credit in the state delinquent in Q1 2026, the highest percentage in the country. When all the dollar amounts are added together, Mississippi residents are delinquent on over 13.6% of their overall debt, the highest percentage in the country.”
- Chip Lupo, WalletHub Editor
More From WalletHub
No comments:
Post a Comment