Americans Are Struggling the Most Financially In Solid Red States Texas, Florida And Louisiana

Americans are struggling across the country. They are facing increasing financial pressure. We will rank all 50 U.S. states by a composite score of financial distress indicators. The data includes number of accounts in distress and bankruptcy trends. It also reflexs online search behavior for debt-related terms between March 2024 and March 2025. See the chart below.

The data for this visualization comes from WalletHub.

The South Leads in Financial Struggles

Texas tops the list as the most financially distressed state. Florida and Louisiana come in 2nd and 3rd place.

You know, Florida, the land where logic goes to die. Florida also has multiple reasons for this. Florida tourism is down 35% which contributes to issues of unaffordability. Matter of fact, things are so bad in Florida that 25% of Floridians have to finance their grocery bills. 

Texas and Florida consistently rank poorly across multiple indicators. This is particularly true in the number and average count of distressed accounts.

Texas ranks 8th for the number of people in distress. It also ranks 7th for the average number of distressed accounts. Louisiana ranks 1st in average accounts in distress.

Western and Northeastern States Fare Better

In contrast, many northern and western states rank near the bottom of the distress scale. Hawaii, Vermont, Alaska, and Oregon round out the bottom five, indicating less financial stress overall.

These states tend to show lower bankruptcy increases and fewer accounts in distress. They also have less debt-related search interest. Notably, Vermont ranks last in the number of people and accounts in distress.

Republican-run states are experiencing significantly more financial hardship with a distress rank of 32.95%. Whereas, Democrat-run states, which have an average lower rank of 20.94%.

Read More About Financially Struggling Americans In Texas, Florida And Lousiana On MFI-Miami.com.