Anson’s debt is 4th lowest in N.C.

Anson County has the fourth-lowest debt ratio in the state, according to a recent study by SmartAsset, a New York financial technology company.

SmartAsset’s study showed the counties across America with the lowest per capita debt. “Counties were analyzed by the amount of debt residents held across three categories: credit cards, auto and mortgage, compared to local income,” explained SmartAsset’s Steve Sabato.

“Our study is designed to show where people are doing the best job managing their debt,” said AJ Smith, managing editor and VP of content strategy for SmartAsset. “We established a per capita debt-to-income ratio for each county in the U.S. in the categories of mortgage debt, auto debt and credit card debt. Each of these factors were weighed equally on our index, and the counties that scored highest ranked at the top.”

Anson County ranked fourth in North Carolina, behind Lenoir, Yancey and Edgecombe counties. The study showed an average income of $16,752 in Anson County, and only 9.1 percent of credit card debt, 15.9 percent auto debt and 73.1 percent mortgage debt.

“For residents of Anson County, who rank 4th statewide and 797th out of 2,220 counties in our study,” Smith said, “it means that they are on average holding less debt than people in other counties in the three major areas of personal debt.”

Neighboring Richmond County was just behind Anson, in fifth place in the state. Richmond’s credit card debt came in at 10 percent of income, while auto debt was at 15.8 percent and mortgage debt was at 67.8 percent.