American cities where people are the most delinquent on debt
Falling behind on debt means late fees, account closures, credit damage, and delinquencies that stay on your report for seven years. For millions of Americans, that is the current situation.
It is not evenly distributed.
WalletHub analyzed proprietary Q4 2025 data across the 100 largest U.S. cities, ranking each on two equally weighted metrics: the share of individual tradelines delinquent and the share of total loan balances past due. These are the 10 cities where residents are struggling most.
Image Credit: pawel.gaul/istockphoto.
Detroit, MI
Detroit earns a perfect score of 100, with 15.68 percent of tradelines and 20.23 percent of loan balances delinquent, the highest balance rate in the ranking. Only 55 percent of working-age adults participate in the labor force, according toU-M research, and the city’s unemployment rate remained above the national average in 2025.
Image credit: :Ultima_Gaina / iStock
Newark, NJ
Newark scores 91.89, with 15.48 percent of tradelines and 17.82 percent of loan balances past due. WalletHub’smortgage data also places Newark among the most distressed cities nationally across multiple debt types.
Image Credit: Greensboro College, Greensboro, N.C..
Greensboro, NC
Greensboro scores 80.24. Its tradeline delinquency rate of 15.51 percent ranks second-highest. Loan balances stand at 13.67 percent past due.
Image Credit: DepositPhotos.com.
Baton Rouge, LA
Baton Rouge scores 77.79, with 14.49 percent of tradelines and 14.99 percent of loan balances delinquent. Louisianaranks among states with the highest share of loans 30 or more days past due, reflecting lower median incomes and more fragile household balance sheets.
Image Credit: vichie81/Istockphoto
Philadelphia, PA
Philadelphia scores 75.25, with 14.52 percent of tradelines and 14.04 percent of loan balances delinquent. It is the largest city in the top five.
Image Credit: DepositPhotos.com.
San Bernardino, CA
San Bernardino scores 73.20. Its loan-balance delinquency of 16.98 percent is the second-highest in the ranking, despite a tradeline rate of just 12.81 percent, indicating fewer accounts in trouble but carrying unusually large unpaid balances.
Image Credit: Nclauzing / istockphoto.
Memphis, TN
Memphis scores 72.56, with 14.00 percent of tradelines and 14.22 percent of loan balances past due. The University of Memphispoverty report puts the city’s poverty rate at 24 percent in 2024, up from 22.6 percent the year before, the second-highest among large U.S. cities.
Image credit: Hanoisoft / iStock
Laredo, TX
Laredo scores 72.52. Its loan balance delinquency of 18.31 percent is among the highest in the ranking against a tradeline rate of just 12.08 percent. WalletHub’smortgage report shows Laredo’s mortgage delinquency rate near 24 percent in mid-2025, the highest of any major U.S. city.
Image Credit: drnadig/istockphoto.
Baltimore, MD
Baltimore scores 71.36, with 14.17 percent of tradelines and 13.43 percent of loan balances delinquent. The city’sown data shows 20 percent of households are in poverty, and 55 percent are liquid asset poor, without enough savings to cover three months above the poverty level.
Image Credit: Deposit Photos.
Toledo, OH
Toledo scores 69.14, with 13.42 percent of tradelines and 14.27 percent of loan balances past due. Toledo sits in the Great Lakes industrial corridor, where wage stagnation and manufacturing decline have keptdelinquency rates elevated well above the national average.
Image Credit: Farknot_Architect / istockphoto.
Wrap up
The cities in this ranking are not newcomers to financial stress. The WalletHub Q4 2025 data captures residents carrying delinquency that compounds over time, not a single missed payment…