Americans in Debt

The Urban Institute has an interactive map that shows how many Americans are in debt county-by-county. But not just "in debt," because that would be almost all of us. This shows the percentage of people whose debts have gone to collections.

Debt in collections includes past-due credit lines that have been closed and charged-off on their books as well as unpaid bills reported to the credit bureaus that the creditor is attempting to collect. For example, credit card accounts enter collections status once they are 180 days past due.

At the site, you can click on counties to get a breakdown of the percentage of people in collections, how much they owe, and what percentage owes medical debt.