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.
MORE ON THE TOPIC: Is migration to Arizona finally starting to slow?
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.
Phoenix’s Financial Distress (1=Most Distressed; 50=Avg.):
- Overall rank for Phoenix: 17th
- 25th – Average Credit Score (Q4 2023)
- 89th – Change in the Share of People with Accounts in Distress – Q4 2023 vs. Q4 2022
- 86th – Change in the Average Number of Accounts in Distress – Q4 2023 vs. Q4 2022
- 91st – Change in Number of Bankruptcy Filings – December 2023 vs. December 2022
- 8th – “Loans” Search Interest Index
Americans have been through a lot of financial difficulties in recent years, between periods of high unemployment and high inflation. Although conditions have significantly improved, many people still are in financial distress, which WalletHub defines as having a credit account that is in forbearance or has its payments deferred, meaning the account holder is temporarily allowed to not make payments due to financial difficulties.
In order 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. Our 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.
You can also see where people are experiencing financial distress more broadly in WalletHub’s state-level report.
