Mapped: States Where U.S. Families are Most Strained by Debt

Visual Capitalist ^ | 11/01/2025 | Pallavi Rao

[SeekAndFind]

Americans are always worrying about debt: their own and their government’s.

This visualization, via Visual Capitalist's Pallavi Rao, maps each state by their household debt-to-income ratios (DTI) in Q1, 2025, revealing which states carry the heaviest burdens and which ones keep borrowing in check.

Data for this visualization comes from the Federal Reserve. The highest ratio is visualized per state.

ℹ️ Debt includes mortgages, autos, credit cards, etc., and excludes student loans. Income is based on unemployment insurance-covered wages, as reported to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Which States Carry the Most Debt?

Two states share the top spot: Idaho and Hawaii both post a DTI of 2.06, meaning households owe just over twice their annual after-tax income.

Rank	State	State Code	Debt-to-Income Ratio (2025)	Debt-to-Income Ratio (1999)	1999–2025 Change
1	Idaho	ID	2.06	1.50	0.56
2	Hawaii	HI	2.06	2.06	0.00
3	Arizona	AZ	1.84	1.40	0.44
4	Colorado	CO	1.84	1.40	0.44
5	Utah	UT	1.84	1.40	0.44
6	Maryland	MD	1.84	1.72	0.12
7	South Carolina	SC	1.72	1.32	0.40
8	Nevada	NV	1.72	1.40	0.32
9	Oregon	OR	1.72	1.40	0.32
10	Florida	FL	1.72	1.60	0.12
11	Delaware	DE	1.60	1.11	0.49
12	Montana	MT	1.60	1.32	0.28
13	Rhode Island	RI	1.60	1.32	0.28
14	Virginia	VA	1.60	1.40	0.20
15	California	CA	1.60	1.72	-0.12
16	Wyoming	WY	1.50	1.11	0.39
17	Georgia	GA	1.50	1.24	0.26
18	Maine	ME	1.50	1.24	0.26
19	North Carolina	NC	1.50	1.24	0.26
20	New Mexico	NM	1.50	1.50	0.00
21	Washington	WA	1.50	1.50	0.00
22	Mississippi	MS	1.40	1.11	0.29
23	New Hampshire	NH	1.40	1.24	0.16
24	New Jersey	NJ	1.40	1.24	0.16
25	Tennessee	TN	1.40	1.24	0.16
26	Alaska	AK	1.40	1.32	0.08
27	Alabama	AL	1.32	1.11	0.21
28	Louisiana	LA	1.32	1.11	0.21
29	Oklahoma	OK	1.32	1.11	0.21
30	Vermont	VT	1.32	1.24	0.08
31	Arkansas	AR	1.24	1.11	0.13
32	Indiana	IN	1.24	1.11	0.13
33	Iowa	IA	1.24	1.11	0.13
34	Kentucky	KY	1.24	1.11	0.13
35	Massachusetts	MA	1.24	1.11	0.13
36	Michigan	MI	1.24	1.11	0.13
37	Minnesota	MN	1.24	1.11	0.13
38	Missouri	MO	1.24	1.11	0.13
39	Nebraska	NE	1.24	1.11	0.13
40	South Dakota	SD	1.24	1.11	0.13
41	Texas	TX	1.24	1.11	0.13
42	West Virginia	WV	1.24	1.11	0.13
43	Wisconsin	WI	1.24	1.11	0.13
44	Connecticut	CT	1.11	1.11	0.00
45	District of Columbia	DC	1.11	1.11	0.00
46	Illinois	IL	1.11	1.11	0.00
47	Kansas	KS	1.11	1.11	0.00
48	New York	NY	1.11	1.11	0.00
49	North Dakota	ND	1.11	1.11	0.00
50	Ohio	OH	1.11	1.11	0.00
51	Pennsylvania	PA	1.11	1.11	0.00

In Hawaii’s case, elevated housing costs push mortgage balances sky-high. In Idaho, a surge of migrants since 2020 has driven up home prices and left many newcomers with large, fresh mortgages.

Rounding out the top five are Arizona, Colorado, and Utah (all 1.84). Once again, fast-growing markets where rising prices and younger populations translate into higher leverage.

ℹ️ Related: Hawaii has the fifth-lowest homeownership rate in the country.

States With the Lowest Household Debt

At the other end of the spectrum, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and North Dakota come in at just 1.11.

Many low-debt states share three traits. They have lower housing costs, older homeowner bases with significant equity, and slower population growth that tempers new borrowing.

However, even high-income states like Connecticut and the District of Columbia can land in this cohort thanks to well-paid residents who keep balances in check.

The gap underscores how regional housing dynamics, more than incomes alone, dictate household debt.

Finally, due to how this ratio is calculated, younger households’ true burden may be understated (student loan exclusion).

At the same time, the income measure is unemployment insurance-covered wages wages (not total personal income), which can overstate the ratio in high-capital-income areas (e.g., states with finance-heavy metros).

If you enjoyed today’s post, check out Visualizing Government Debt-to-GDP Around the World on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.

---

TOPICS: Business/Economy; Society
KEYWORDS: debt; economy

[Dr. Sivana]

Arizona used to be an affordable state (except gasoline). But wages are also lower than other states with big league cities. The costs, especially housing, went up. The wages . . . not so much.

[irishjuggler]

Who knew Idaho had so many deadbeats?! But maybe something wacky is going on there that is skewing the stats.... like maybe a lot mortgage debt for high-end homes for multimillionaires in and around Sun Valley/Ketchum... versus mediocre incomes statewide?

[madison10]

What is up with Idaho? Farmers?

[madison10]

That doesn’t mean they are deadbeats. Was there something catastrophic thst occurred?

[bak3r]

Surprised Idaho is so high and Florida is so low.

[Nervous Tick]

Mighty suspicious that the ratios are not more granular (i.e. continuous across the 50 states), but “happen” to work out to only 9 discrete values. What are they hiding?

[Paladin2]

Larry Craig and The Big Potatoe?

[Paladin2]

County by County would be better.

[blackdog]

Farming is the only business that banks will loan advances on crops not even planted yet for fertilizer, seed, machinery, processing facility construction, transportation, and the guy borrowing $9.7 million (this year) never even graduated high school. He’s done amazingly well considering that stacked deck.

[rellic]

I’ve lived in Hawaii 25 or so years now.
I lived in WA state for 21 years or so.
I grew up in Southern CA.
These states all have High housing costs,
High food costs, and
High energy costs.
Y’all want to know what the common factor is?
They are all run by rich Democrats.
Rich Democrats that get elected by ignorant
poor people that have been promised
an un-earned handout.

[Nervous Tick]

>> County by County would be better.

10-4

[madison10]

I was wondering if the debt ratio was so high depending on when farmers were questioned. Does that make sense?

[Nervous Tick]

>> County by County would be better.

Oh look! All “Visual Capitalist” is doing is repackaging a plot from the Fed. And on the FRB site, they DO have the data graphed by county:

https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/dataviz/household_debt/county/map/#state:all;year:2025

The Fed data isn’t actual ratio numbers per state or county either, just that stupid range. So my earlier question is more appropriately for them: what are THEY hiding?

[blackdog]

Yes it does. Farmers have several categories of loan products. They have crop loans, operating loans, and expansion or capital improvement loans. Each is treated much differently. Banks will tell you that unless you take out a $6 million equipment and facility expansion loan, they will not restructure your operating loan. They literally force you into debt loads unmanageable. It's a weird system that stimulates the farm machinery manufacturers, co-op processing facilities, grain dryers, grain storage facilities, etc.......by forcing the farmers to buy the services and machineries in order to be viable for the crop season. The crop loans are lightly secured by the value of the crops planted. A farmer many times has sold that harvest for a fair price before its even planted. Now the really big score farmers I knew had very, very, deep pockets. They would assume all risks associated with crop production and hold onto the harvest, waiting for a commodities price spike. I knew a farmer that had a magic wand on wheat. He never borrowed a dime for anything. If the bank passed him off he bought the bank. He had that kind of success at a craft few can do well in as a business.

He didn't like the prices he was getting on steers one fall. He got tired of pencil shrink and shady auctions. So he bought the auction facility, co-op, and surrounding feed lots. Cash.

About 90% of farmers are slaves to this system of debt. The other 10% are kings and need nothing from anyone.

[Bobbyvotes]

Right on!

[sauropod]

bkmk

[cpdiii]

About 90% of farmers are slaves to this system of debt. The other 10% are kings and need nothing from anyone.

The king of kings is Archer Danial Midland. The largest producer of ethanol in the USA which they use to poison gasoline into an inferior product. This crap gasoline is subsidized by the American Taxpayer, see below per AI.

"There is no longer a federal 45-cent-per-gallon tax credit for ethanol blending; it expired in 2011, but the government still supports the industry through other means, such as the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) mandates and infrastructure incentives for high-blend pumps. Additionally, a separate federal tax credit exists for retailers selling higher ethanol blends like E15 (15% ethanol), with amounts varying by year and blend level, and this credit is set to expire on December 31, 2028."

Oddly I do not blame Archer Danial Midland. This is on a corrupt congress, lobbyist with skin in the game and crazy environmental commie nuts."

Alcohol is not gasoline. It has two purposes, one is in chemical synthesis and the other is to put in fired oak barrels and lovingly cared for over many years by those boys up in Tennessee and Kentucky. I always suspected they took a sample now and then, "Just to make sure it was aging properly!"

[Paladin2]

GREAT!

Thank you...

I’ll note that some “Res” Counties have no data.

[Paladin2]

“Alcohol is not gasoline.”

Better than Methanol, but still total kr@p.

https://www.pure-gas.org/

Put your money in to support alcohol-free gas in the US.