ATLANTA — In a recent survey of where Americans are the most stressed about their finances, WalletHub said Georgia is in the top 10.
The WalletHub study focused on inflation, unemployment, public health emergencies and natural disasters as some of the factors weighing down United states residents’ wallets, and how it affects their overall stress levels.
“As a result, a growing number of people have experienced financial distress, which WalletHub defines as having a credit account in forbearance or with payments deferred due to financial hardship,” WalletHub said in the study.
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So, what puts Georgia in the top 10 ranks for most financially distressed states in America?
Georgia was ranked No. 7 due to its high number of people with bank accounts in distress, in addition to how many people filed for bankruptcy in the past year, the number of people searching for information on debt and loans and how many Georgians had changes in credit scores in 2026.
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The study examined data points from those factors from March 2025 to March 2026.
“Measuring the share of residents in financial distress is a good way to take the pulse of a state and see whether people are generally thriving or having trouble making ends meet,” WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo said. “When you combine data about people delaying payments with other metrics like bankruptcy filings and credit score changes, it paints a good picture of the overall economic trends of a state.”
The top 10 states that were most financially distressed, according to the WalletHub study, are:
- Kansas
- Louisiana
- Florida
- Texas
- South Carolina
- Wyoming
- Georgia
- California
- North Carolina
- Kentucky
Georgia ranked:
- No. 7 for number of people with accounts in distress
- No. 14 for credit scores
- No. 9 for the average number of accounts in distress
- No. 17 for new bankruptcy filings in 2026
- No. 15 for those searching for debt information
- No. 9 for people searching for information about loans.
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