Top 10 US States by CFPB Complaints Per 100,000 Residents
PlainCredit ranks US states by population-normalized CFPB consumer complaint rate per 100,000 residents, showing which states see the most consumer-financial friction on a per-capita basis.
Research period:
Research question
Among 50 US states and DC, which see the highest rate of CFPB consumer complaints per 100,000 residents, and which dominant financial company appears as the top source of complaints in each high-rate state?
Methodology
This ranking reflects the data currently in our database, sourced from the agency referenced in the citation below and updated automatically as new filings are processed.
Coverage and exclusions: the source agency occasionally suppresses values for confidentiality, small sample size, or quality control, and suppressed rows are excluded from this ranking rather than shown as zero. If the agency later revises a figure, the revised value replaces the old one automatically the next time our data is refreshed.
Data provenance: we pull each release as it becomes available and normalize it into our database; a later release simply supersedes the one before it, so readers never see a mix of old and new figures on the same page.
Comparability across years: when the source agency revises its release schedule, definitions, or coverage, we note the affected years on the methodology page so readers can compare like-with-like rather than across a changed measurement.
Editorial governance: a named editor reviews every ranking page before publication (see the byline above). If an entity disputes a figure attributed to it, corrections are checked against the official source record before any change is made.
Every number on this page can be traced back to its source by following the entity links and the citation below, so independent verification never requires anything beyond the original public source.
See the methodology page for the complete ETL pipeline, source vintage, and column lineage.
Top 10 US States by CFPB Complaints Per 100,000 Residents
Live data: reflects the current dataset
The ranked top 10
Every row below reflects the current 10-record dataset. Reload the page after new data is processed to see the latest values.
| # | State | Total complaints | Per 100K residents | Top company |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Georgia | 1,043,662 | 9,462.7 | EQUIFAX, INC. |
| 2 | Florida | 1,911,224 | 8,452.7 | EQUIFAX, INC. |
| 3 | District of Columbia | 51,105 | 7,526.8 | EQUIFAX, INC. |
| 4 | Mississippi | 199,038 | 6,770.7 | TRANSUNION INTERMEDIATE HOLDINGS, INC. |
| 5 | Louisiana | 300,172 | 6,562.9 | EQUIFAX, INC. |
| 6 | Delaware | 65,990 | 6,395.1 | EQUIFAX, INC. |
| 7 | Alabama | 319,102 | 6,246.5 | EQUIFAX, INC. |
| 8 | Texas | 1,844,129 | 6,045.7 | EQUIFAX, INC. |
| 9 | Nevada | 191,423 | 5,992.9 | TRANSUNION INTERMEDIATE HOLDINGS, INC. |
| 10 | Maryland | 355,611 | 5,754 | EQUIFAX, INC. |
Source: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, CFPB Consumer Complaint Database. Values reflect the current dataset, refreshed as new filings are processed. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, CFPB Consumer Complaint Database. Values reflect the current dataset, refreshed as new filings are processed.
Findings
Top entity in the ranking
The top-ranked record in this dataset is Georgia, with a value of 9,462.7 on the Per 100K residents column. The full top-10 set is rendered in the table above. Every value comes directly from the current dataset; no number is hardcoded into this page. When the source agency publishes a revision, the ranking and the prose around it update automatically.
Distribution shape
The gap between the top-ranked record (9,462.7) and the 10th-ranked record (5,754) characterizes how concentrated the top of the distribution is. Where the top value is many multiples of the median value of the visible set, the population is highly concentrated, a small number of entities accumulate the bulk of the measured quantity. Where the top and bottom of the visible set are close together, the distribution is relatively flat across the top end. The full distribution beyond this top-10 cut is summarized in the aggregate context section below and explored in the linked entity profiles.
Aggregate context
Across the full population behind this ranking, here are the summary statistics: how many records exist in total, the sum of the ranking metric across all qualifying records, and the mean per-record value. The methodology page documents the exact filter applied (records with null or zero values on the ranking metric are excluded). This aggregate row is computed from the same dataset that powers the ranking above.
Source provenance
The records in this ranking originate from Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, specifically the CFPB Consumer Complaint Database. PlainCredit ingests the source vintage published by the agency and keeps this page current, there is no static export carrying stale numbers, and a newly published dataset is reflected here within hours. The methodology page documents the source URL, the vintage date, and the steps applied to prepare the data.
Why this ranking matters
Rankings like this one let a reader scan a population quickly and identify outliers, concentrations, and patterns that warrant deeper investigation. The detail pages linked from each entity in the table above give the full per-entity context: time-series history where available, related metrics from adjacent tables, and links onward to the underlying source records. The methodology page explains how an entity earns inclusion in the dataset and how the ranking column is computed at the source.
What this analysis cannot tell us
Population normalization uses Census Bureau state population estimates; rates use a static denominator and don't account for population change within the complaint-accumulation window. Rates reflect the location of the consumer submitting the complaint, not necessarily where the financial product was sold or originated. High rates can reflect either above-average consumer awareness of the CFPB complaint channel or above-average actual harm, the two are difficult to separate from this dataset alone. State-level top-company assignments reflect the company most cited in that state's complaints, which can be a credit bureau (which appears in every state's complaints) rather than a regional bank specific to the state. Per-capita rates can be skewed by states with very small populations where small absolute counts produce volatile rates.
Secondary cut from the same source
Top 10 states by raw CFPB complaint count, contrast with per-capita ranking above
Sources
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Consumer Complaint Database - https://www.consumerfinance.gov/data-research/consumer-complaints/
- U.S. Census Bureau, Population Estimates - https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/popest.html