The individual states all have varying debt levels. I found state debt levels on the Census site on State & Local Government Finance. The figures are from 2010 and are estimated.
The top 5 states are :
California | $ 148,929 |
New York | $ 129,530 |
Massachusetts | $ 73,940 |
Illinois | $ 61,412 |
New Jersey | $ 60,968 |
The bottom 5 states are :
Wyoming | $ 1,514 |
North Dakota | $ 2,198 |
Nebraska | $ 2,330 |
South Dakota | $ 3,483 |
Vermont | $ 3,493 |
You may notice a trend there that the largest states in population also have higher debt levels while the lowest debt is found among low population states. Of course the raw debt numbers don't say too much because clearly California or Illinois are much larger states with higher economic output than Wyoming or Vermont.
California may owe almost $150B in debt but on a per capita basis thats around $3,850 per person and by comparison Vermont's relatively small looking $3.5B debt for that small population state is over $5,000 per person. Plus if you look at Gross State Product (GSP) then the GSP for Vermont's economy is only $28B while California's economy wracks up $2.1 trillion. The debt / GSP is 12.5% for Vermont and 7% for California. Either way California's debt level is less than Vermont's as far as per person or in relation to the respective state economies.
Here is the full list of states in alphabetical order with the amount of debt in millions of dollars :
Alabama | $ 8,785 |
Alaska | $ 6,381 |
Arizona | $ 13,960 |
Arkansas | $ 4,247 |
California | $148,929 |
Colorado | $ 16,710 |
Connecticut | $ 30,216 |
Delaware | $ 5,515 |
Florida | $ 41,324 |
Georgia | $ 13,789 |
Hawaii | $ 7,701 |
Idaho | $ 3,872 |
Illinois | $ 61,412 |
Indiana | $ 23,635 |
Iowa | $ 5,140 |
Kansas | $ 6,478 |
Kentucky | $ 14,393 |
Louisiana | $ 17,443 |
Maine | $ 6,034 |
Maryland | $ 24,475 |
Massachusetts | $ 73,940 |
Michigan | $ 32,146 |
Minnesota | $ 11,683 |
Mississippi | $ 6,468 |
Missouri | $ 20,421 |
Montana | $ 4,400 |
Nebraska | $ 2,330 |
Nevada | $ 4,436 |
New Hampshire | $ 8,347 |
New Jersey | $ 60,968 |
New Mexico | $ 8,740 |
New York | $ 129,530 |
North Carolina | $ 18,853 |
North Dakota | $ 2,198 |
Ohio | $ 30,004 |
Oklahoma | $ 9,963 |
Oregon | $ 13,510 |
Pennsylvania | $ 44,738 |
Rhode Island | $ 9,498 |
South Carolina | $ 15,771 |
South Dakota | $ 3,483 |
Tennessee | $ 5,835 |
Texas | $ 42,034 |
Utah | $ 6,478 |
Vermont | $ 3,493 |
Virginia | $ 25,047 |
Washington | $ 27,478 |
West Virginia | $ 7,144 |
Wisconsin | $ 22,319 |
Wyoming | $ 1,514 |
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