Michigan’s largest city has more delinquents than most, ranking in the top three among 100 of the country’s largest cities for folks behind on their debt payments.

“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,” said WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo.

The personal finance website notes catching up on debt is harder in some cities than others, so researchers combed through proprietary user data from the last quarter of 2024 to identify Where People Are the Most Delinquent on Debt.

The analysis takes into account both the percentage of individual tradelines delinquent and share of total loan balances past due to develop an overall ranking, as well as sub rankings for the two categories.

“Detroit is the third-most delinquent city, with residents delinquent on 15.5% of all their loans and lines of credit. This is the fifth-highest delinquency rate in terms of the number of individual tradelines,” WalletHub reports.

“When you look at dollar amounts, Detroit residents are delinquent on 18.9% of their entire debt, the second-highest rate in the country,” researchers wrote. “Given that this report takes both metrics into consideration, Detroit ranks third in the study overall (other cities that ranked higher in one metric ranked lower in another).”

Detroit was the only city from the Midwest among the top 10, which also included Laredo, Texas as the most delinquent city, followed by San Bernardino, Calif.; Detroit; Newark, N.J.; Philadelphia, Penn.; Baltimore, Md.; Stockton, Calif.; Baton Rouge, La.; Bakersfield, Calif.; and El Paso, Texas.

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Scottsdale, Ariz., was ranked as the lest delinquent city, ahead of Seattle, Wash.; San Francisco, Calif.; Boston, Mass.; Fremont, Calif; Boise, Idaho; Honolulu, Hawaii; Madison, Wisc.; San Diego, Calif.; Portland, Ore.; and San Jose, Calif.

The findings mark the latest in a long line of studies documenting the plight of residents in “The Renaissance City.”

Earlier this month, analysis of 29 key indicators of happiness tied to positive-psychology research – from the rate of depression, to income growth, to average leisure time per day – found Detroit ranked second to last among 182 U.S. cities, just ahead of last place Cleveland.

A breakdown of the metrics showed Detroit ranked dead last for separation and divorce rate, as well as adequate sleep rate.

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Another study in February ranked Detroit 26^th among 499 of the country’s largest cities for 2025’s Most Expensive Cities to Heat a Home in Winter.

The same month, Detroit ranked second to last among 116 of the largest U.C. cities in a study of the Hardest Working Cities in America behind Burlington, Vt.

An infographic included with the analysis showed Detroit has maintained one of the lowest employment rates in the country since at least 2009.

It’s a similar situation with education in Detroit.

The Detroit Public Schools Community District came in dead last among 26 large urban school districts that participated in NEAP’s Trial Urban District Assessment, a distinction it has maintained since volunteering to participate in 2009, Chalkbeat Detroit reports.

The results for 2024 show a mere 7% of Detroit fourth-graders are proficient in math, while it was just 4% for eighth-graders. In reading, only 5% of fourth graders tested proficient, and 6% of eighth-graders.

The problems are tied largely to unemployment and poverty.

Over the last year, Detroit metro area’s unemployment rate has steadily increased from 4% to 5.6% in January, adding 35,000 to the state’s unemployment rolls, according to the Michigan Department of Technology, Management & Budget.

A staggering 69% of Detroit residents are either in poverty or considered Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed, which means  their “wages fail to keep pace with the rising cost of household essentials (housing, child care, food, transportation, health care, and a basic smartphone plan),” according to the United Way’s United for ALICE report.

The 69% figure equates to 171,907 out of 249,518 households in the city.

Despite the serious ongoing problems, Mayor Mike Duggan declared his decision to ditch the Democratic Party to run for Michigan governor as an Independent in 2026, pitching himself as a problem solver and a unifier.

“If you think the two-party system is serving you well, you can vote for your Republican or Democratic candidate,” Duggan said. “But if you think the only way we can really change the quality of life in Michigan is a different way, I’m going to give people the alternative, an independent who is going to go to Lansing and work with responsible leadership in both parties.”

In Michigan, the last governor who wasn’t a Republican or Democrat was James Wright Gordon, a member of the Whig party who served one year as governor in 1841.