In 2025 the CFPB received 283,203 complaints about debt collection, 5.3 times its 2020 count. Per resident, Georgia sent the most.
Pick a product and a year. Then switch between complaints per 100,000 residents and raw counts. The raw map mostly tracks where people live. The per-resident map divides by population, so large and small states can be compared.
210.3 per 100,000 residents in 2025: 23,769 complaints from 11,302,748 residents.
Rank 1 of 52 for debt collection.
Counts by product group for the whole country, including complaints from territories and military addresses. The rate uses the 50 states and DC only. The multiple compares 2025 with 2020.
| Product | Complaints | Share | Per 100,000 | vs 2020 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 283,203 | 5.2% | 82.6 | 5.3x | |
| 4,810,292 | 88.4% | 1398.1 | 17x | |
| 96,480 | 1.8% | 28 | 2.8x | |
| 84,195 | 1.5% | 24.4 | 3.5x | |
| 84,619 | 1.6% | 24.4 | 10.2x | |
| 24,697 | 0.5% | 7.2 | 1x | |
| 21,283 | 0.4% | 6.2 | 4.9x | |
| 20,769 | 0.4% | 6 | 3x | |
| 13,137 | 0.2% | 3.8 | 3.1x | |
| 4,266 | 0.1% | 1.2 | new | |
| All products | 5,442,941 | 100% | 1581.9 | 12.3x |
8,375 complaints in 2025 gave no state. They are in the national count and on no tile.
For each calendar year from 2020 to 2025, the study asked the CFPB's public search API for counts by state, once for all products and once per product. It kept only those counts and the national response mix. It never stored a complaint, a narrative, a ZIP code or a company. Population is the Census Bureau's Vintage 2025 estimate for July 1 of the same year. Every year's product groups add up to the CFPB's own total, and a test fails if they ever stop.
| Group | CFPB product names it joins |
|---|---|
| Debt collection | Debt collection |
| Credit reporting | Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports; Credit reporting or other personal consumer reports Before April 2023 this product also covered credit repair services, which the CFPB now files under debt or credit management. |
| Credit and prepaid cards | Credit card or prepaid card; Credit card; Prepaid card One CFPB product until April 2023 and two after; combined here so the series is continuous. |
| Checking or savings | Checking or savings account |
| Money transfer and virtual currency | Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service |
| Mortgage | Mortgage |
| Student loan | Student loan |
| Vehicle loan or lease | Vehicle loan or lease |
| Payday, title and personal loans | Payday loan, title loan, or personal loan; Payday loan, title loan, personal loan, or advance loan |
| Debt or credit management | Debt or credit management A CFPB product only since April 2023 (credit repair and debt settlement). |
Each row recomputes a fact on this page from the data your browser already downloaded. If the page and the release drift apart, a row goes red.
Running checks.
Version v1.0.0, snapshot of 2026-10-28, CC BY 4.0. The CFPB's data and the Census estimates keep their own terms (listed in the README). A DOI on Zenodo is coming; until then, cite the version and this page.
| File | Size | SHA-256 |
|---|---|---|
| states.json | 599 KB | e15228bc3b94b8fb… |
| states.csv | 180 KB | 82d98bf1920fc4f4… |
| national.json | 25 KB | 67ba421237bc7436… |
| national.csv | 5 KB | 6cc3054f70e10bc2… |
| crosswalk.json | 3 KB | 5b2e7eeb3000e139… |
| crosswalk.csv | 2 KB | e14b6396d42fb5d7… |
| sources.json | 1001 B | 4827e0b1f44b58ee… |
| sources.csv | 808 B | 95dab564e060e935… |
| README.md | 5 KB | 2860653da9600ea0… |
| manifest.json | 4 KB | 4cb6267383bcdf82… |
| SHA256SUMS | 788 B | lists the others |
Cite as: Lawrence, J. (2026). Consumer complaints by state (v1.0.0). jakelawrence.xyz/research/consumer-complaints
I build the AI tools and automations a team adopts, and the full-stack apps and data pipelines under them, and ship them to production. Tell me the problem in a sentence and I'll give you an honest read on fit within a day.
Work with me →