Nearly half the residents of Louisiana have debt that has gone into collections, making that state America’s capital of past-due debt, according to a new national map of indebtedness released by the Urban Institute this week.
The debt numbers are derived from anonymized consumer-level records shared with Urban’s researchers by a major credit bureau. Unpaid bills that creditors have either closed or are trying to collect are considered “in collections.” For example, unpaid credit card debt typically goes into collections after 180 days, according to the Urban Institute.