Report: Chicago Has Way More in Financial Distress than St. Louis

The numbers show this is accurate, but it doesn't feel accurate. New data has revealed that Chicago, Illinois has many more people in financial distress than St. Louis, Missouri does.

This interesting new study was recently shared by WalletHub. It looks at how many people in different parts of America are in financial distress and why. How did they decide which cities had residents in crisis? They say they included "nine key metrics in six overall categories" and those categories credit scores, bankruptcy filings and the number of people in each place that have accounts that are behind. The smaller the dot on the map, the bigger the problem with money there.

Chicago ranks 15th in America among the worst metros for a population having problems with money. St. Louis is way down at #77. Let's state the obvious. Chicago has exponentially more people living within its confines than St. Louis does, but I believe this ranking is based on percentages and not a raw population number.

I am certainly not one to talk as my family is like many others living paycheck to paycheck to try and get by. I do know that debt is a huge problem which is made more difficult by what inflation has done to the regular people like you and me for the past year or so. There's sadly no easy way out for most, but here's hoping that 2025 grows into a year of more and better opportunities to dig out of these holes for everyone.