SmartAsset, a New York financial technology company, recently released a study uncovering the counties across America with the lowest per capita debt and Des Moines County is one of the best in Iowa.
Counties were analyzed by the amount of debt residents held across three categories: credit cards, auto, and mortgage, compared to local income.
In the table below you can see where Des Moines County stacked up against the leaders in Iowa.
Rank County Income Credit Card Debt as % of Income Auto Debt as % of Income Mortgage Debt as % of Income Lowest Debt Index
1 Wright, IA $25,827 7.8% 7.5% 41.4% 96.91
2 Clay, IA $29,060 7.6% 5.5% 62.8% 95.57
3 O’Brien, IA $28,086 7.2% 9.0% 62.5% 93.52
4 Des Moines, IA $24,408 7.9% 9.1% 56.7% 93.11
5 Allamakee, IA $24,926 8.8% 7.3% 58.0% 92.94
6 Buena Vista, IA $22,899 6.7% 7.6% 81.2% 92.77
7 Henry, IA $22,687 7.1% 12.1% 55.1% 92.27
8 Kossuth, IA $29,127 6.0% 7.0% 100.4% 91.54
9 Jackson, IA $24,493 6.7% 9.6% 80.3% 91.18
10 Floyd, IA $24,590 7.0% 9.4% 82.9% 90.40
Methodology
Our study aims to find the places where people have the least amount of debt. To find these counties we looked at three kinds of debt: credit card, auto and mortgage.
We calculated a per capita debt-to-income ratio for each of these categories for every county. We indexed the three ratios for each county and then averaged them to create the Debt Index.
Sources: US Census Bureau 2013 American Community Survey, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
For more information on the study go to
https://smartasset.com/personal-loans/personal-loan-rates#iowa
