Mapping Credit Card Delinquency Rates In The US By State

Credit card debt carries a hefty bill in America, and falling behind on payments can be extremely costly for cardholders.

This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Marcus Lu, shows credit card delinquency rates across 50 U.S. states, as of Q3 2023. This data comes from a WalletHub study published in January 2024.

Which States Have the Lowest and Highest Delinquency Rates?

Credit card delinquency is when a cardholder falls behind on required monthly payments. Credit agencies are often notified after two months of delinquent payments.

WalletHub examined proprietary user data on the average number of delinquent credit card tradelines—also known as credit accounts—across states. Here they are from lowest to highest:

Rank
State
Share of Credit Card
Tradelines Delinquent (%)
1
Iowa
12.9
2
Massachusetts
13.9
3
Hawaii
13.9
4
Rhode Island
14.7
5
Washington
14.7
6
Florida
14.8
7
New York
14.9
8
California
15.1
9
New Hampshire
15.5
10
Alaska
15.6
11
New Jersey
15.6
12
Colorado
15.7
13
Utah
15.8
14
Vermont
16.1
15
Montana
16.1
16
Illinois
16.5
17
Oregon
16.6
18
Idaho
17.0
19
Ohio
17.5
20
Connecticut
17.8
21
Maine
18.0
22
Nebraska
18.1
23
Wyoming
18.1
24
Maryland
18.4
25
Kansas
18.4
26
Wisconsin
18.5
27
Virginia
18.7
28
Nevada
19.1
29
South Dakota
19.3
30
Arizona
19.8
31
Minnesota
19.8
32
Pennsylvania
20.2
33
Michigan
20.9
34
North Dakota
21.3
35
Delaware
21.4
36
Missouri
22.4
37
New Mexico
22.6
38
Georgia
23.1
39
North Carolina
24.0
40
Indiana
24.3
41
Texas
24.7
42
West Virginia
25.2
43
Tennessee
26.2
44
South Carolina
26.9
45
Kentucky
27.6
46
Oklahoma
28.2
47
Arkansas
30.1
48
Alabama
30.5
49
Louisiana
31.7
50
Mississippi
39.1

No state had credit delinquency rates of less than 10%, with Iowa coming the closest at 12.9%.

That puts Iowa ahead of wealthier states like Massachusetts (13.9%), Washington (14.7%), and New Hampshire (15.5%).

At the bottom end was Mississippi, which had 39% credit delinquency rates to end 2023. That’s well ahead of the next-lowest states Louisiana (31.7%) and Alabama (30.5%).

It’s notable that the American South had higher rates of delinquency almost across the board. The five states with the highest rates of credit card delinquency are all located in the southeastern region of the country, and Texas had a higher delinquency rate (25%) than other majorly populated states like Florida (14.8%) and New York (14.9%).