According to the study, the US states with the most financially poor residents are ranked

A personal finance company recently released a survey of the US states with the most money-worried residents — and the results may surprise you.

WalletHub released its study, titled “States with the Most Financial Struggles,” on July 17. The company said it used nine key metrics, including credit score changes and online searches for “debt” and “loan,” to determine the results.

“Our dataset includes factors such as average credit score, the change in the number of bankruptcy filings between March 2023 and March 2024, and the percentage of people with troubled accounts,” WalletHub explained.

There were no clear trends across regions of the US, but the most money-troubled states tended to be in the Southeast, while the least financially-troubled were in New England and the Midwest.

For the most financially anxious residents, WalletHub ranked the US states as follows:

50. New Hampshire

49. Iowa

48. Connecticut

47. Vermont

46. ​​Wisconsin

45. Nebraska

44. Maine

43. Kansas

42. Oregon

41. Wyoming

40. Massachusetts

39. Hawaii

38. Pennsylvania

37. New Mexico

36. Montana

35. Utah

34. Alaska

33. Virginia

32. New Jersey

31. Arkansas

30. Colorado

29. Minnesota

28. Indiana

27. Ohio

26. California

25. Idaho

24. Washington

23. North Dakota

22. Maryland

21. Missouri

20. Illinois

19. West Virginia

18. Arizona

17. Alabama

16. Delaware

15. South Dakota

14. Kentucky

13. Florida

12. Oklahoma

11. South Carolina

10. New York

9. Mississippi

8. North Carolina

7. Louisiana

6. Georgia

5. Rhode Island

4. Tennessee

3. Nevada

2. Texas

1. Michigan

WalletHub found Michigan to be the most financially distressed state after finding, in the first quarter of 2024, that the Great Lakes State had “the most accounts per person in financial distress, meaning accounts where the account holder was temporarily allowed to not made the appropriate payments in financial difficulties.”

“Michiganians also had the second-highest increase in the percentage of people with difficult accounts between the first quarter of 2023 and the first quarter of 2024, at over 70%,” the study added.

The company added that despite Texas having a $2.4 trillion economy, the Lone Star State trailed Michigan.

“However, Texans are experiencing a number of economic struggles, demonstrated by the fact that residents had the third-lowest average credit score in the nation in the first quarter of 2024,” WalletHub reported.

Texans also Google ‘debt’ and ‘loan’ at a high rate, indicating that many people are desperate to get a loan despite already having debt.

According to WalletHub analyst Cassandra Happe, measuring states by financial distress is an efficient way “to take the pulse of a state and see if people are generally thriving or struggling to make ends meet.”

“When you combine data on people who are late with payments with other metrics like bankruptcy filings and credit score changes, it gives a good picture of a state’s overall economic trends,” Happe said.

Fox Business reached out to WalletHub for additional comment, but did not immediately respond.