Detroit, Mich., Newark, N.J., among cities most debt-ridden

With Americans owing around $18.8 trillion in total household debt, the personal-finance company WalletHub today released its updated report on the Cities Where People Are the Most Delinquent on Debt.to show where people are at the biggest risk of credit score damage and other negative consequences.

To highlight the places where people are having the biggest issues paying their bills, WalletHub analyzed proprietary user data from Q4 2025 for the 100 largest cities for which we could obtain a complete data set. In our ranking, we considered both the percentage of individual tradelines that were delinquent and the percentages of residents' total loan balances that were delinquent.

For the full report and to see where your city ranks, please visit:
https://wallethub.com/edu/cities-where-people-are-most-delinquent-on-debt/134712/



"Being delinquent on debt can significantly damage a person's credit score and make it more difficult to get a credit card, rent apartments, or buy cars and homes in the future. People who miss a loan payment should try to get current as quickly as possible. The good news is that for many types of debt, borrowers have at least 30 days before delinquency gets reported to the credit bureaus. That allows people a little leeway to get the funds together and avoid credit score damage, though the issuer will still likely charge a late fee."
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"Detroit, MI, has the biggest debt delinquency problem. About 15.7% of loans and lines of credit in Detroit are delinquent as of Q4 2025, and when all the dollar amounts are added together, residents are delinquent on around 20.2% of their overall debt."

- Chip Lupo, WalletHub Analyst