8 States With the Most Financially Irresponsible Residents

It is very important for state governments to be open and honest. People should be able to see where their tax money is going and how much is going to services like education, healthcare, public safety, economic growth, transportation, and more.

Different states are worse with their money than others because of things like debt, relying on government money, and bad budgeting. But what about the people who live in a state? A different set of numbers is needed to figure out how much people spend compared to how much they earn and save. These numbers include average credit card debt and online shopping habits on sites like Amazon.

Socially Powerful used data from the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) and other sources to make a list of total rankings for all 50 states based on all metrics and the number of people living in each state.

According to Socially Powerful, the Dakotas are the most financially responsible states. South Dakota was better than North Dakota in a number of areas. Kansas, Indiana, and Minnesota round out the top five states where people are the most responsible with their money.

8 Tennessee

Is this state, which is known for country music and southern kindness, also crazy about Amazon? It is, according to the figures from Socially Powerful. In the U.S., Tennessee has the ninth lowest median family income and the eighth lowest average retirement savings. However, it spends more on Amazon each month than any other state ($124.22 vs. $114.00 for Delaware in second place).

7. Georgia

WalletHub tried to “shed light on the financial troubles experienced by people across the U.S.” last year by comparing states based on nine factors, such as credit score rank, the average number of accounts in distress, and the number of “debt” and “loan” searches made by residents. Georgia came in sixth place in WalletHub’s study and seventh place in Socially Powerful’s.

6. California

California has by far the most places for people to spend their money (15,253), including shops, restaurants, and bars. Of its residents, 56.5% say they do more of their shopping online.

5. Rhode Island

WalletHub research shows that between the third quarter of 2023 and the third quarter of 2024, Rhode Island had the biggest change in the share of people whose accounts were in distress and the biggest change in the average number of accounts in distress. Rhode Island is the smallest state in the US and has the seventh fewest people living in it.

4. Florida

Florida came in fifth for total debt costs, third for number of marketplaces, and second for number of marketplaces per 10,000 people. That is, people in Florida pay a lot of interest on the things they bought and have a lot of places they could spend their money when they leave the house.

3. Colorado

Socially Powerful says that Colorado is tied with Texas as the second most irresponsible state, even though its people have an average retirement savings of $449,719 and a median income of $92,911. People in Colorado have an average of $6,574 in credit card debt, which is just $2 less than people in California. However, they pay $957 in interest, which is 11% more than people in California ($858).

2. Texas

Texas was rated highly in all of Socially Powerful’s measures of financially irresponsible people, but it was ranked highest in WalletHub’s “States with the Most People in Financial Distress” study. It had the highest number of people with accounts in distress, the second highest average number of accounts in distress, and the highest rates of non-business bankruptcy filings and internet searches for “debt” and “loan.”

1. Washington

In Socially Powerful’s study, Washington did well on most of the criteria. It had the fifth highest monthly Amazon spending ($112.06) and the second-highest number of residents shopping online (55.3%), after California. Digital Journal reported that the average Washington citizen has $136,170 in debt, which is 6.9% more than in 2023.