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Press Release
Study Finds Most Financially Healthy Places in Florida
A healthy mind and a healthy body are important, but a healthy wallet is too. SmartAsset, a New York financial technology company, recently released a study on the most financially healthy places in the U.S. -- and Florida The study analyzed debt, bankruptcy, poverty and unemployment in counties across the country to find where residents were most financially healthy.
For a detailed look at how the top counties in Florida performed in each category, check out the table below:
| Rank | County | Debt as % of Income | Bankrupt-cies | Poverty Rate | Unemploy-ment Rate | Financial Health Index |
| 1 | Sumter, FL | 0.93% | 0.60 | 10.10% | 7.00% | 87.20 |
| 2 | Sarasota, FL | 1.15% | 1.64 | 9.70% | 4.60% | 82.79 |
| 3 | Saint Johns, FL | 1.57% | 1.25 | 9.80% | 3.70% | 82.21 |
| 4 | Martin, FL | 1.25% | 1.18 | 11.20% | 4.90% | 81.41 |
| 5 | Monroe, FL | 1.63% | 0.99 | 11.30% | 3.20% | 80.77 |
| 6 | Nassau, FL | 1.37% | 1.41 | 10.80% | 4.60% | 80.30 |
| 7 | Okaloosa, FL | 1.34% | 1.38 | 11.30% | 4.00% | 80.30 |
| 8 | Charlotte, FL | 1.13% | 1.51 | 12.40% | 5.30% | 78.07 |
| 9 | Indian River, FL | 1.08% | 1.62 | 13.00% | 6.20% | 76.00 |
| 10 | Santa Rosa, FL | 1.51% | 1.54 | 12.30% | 4.50% | 75.90 |
Additional details on the study, including the methodology and interactive map, can be found here.
Methodology
There’s a lot more to financial health than how much income one earns in a given year. To find the most financially healthy places, SmartAsset took a holistic approach, considering debt as a percent of income, bankruptcies per 1,000 people, poverty rates and unemployment rates in our analysis. To calculate debt as a percent of income, we divided debt per capita by income per capita. To calculate bankruptcies per 1,000 people, we divided total bankruptcies by the population, and multiplied that number by 1,000.
To calculate the Financial Health Index, we weighted debt as a percent of income 10%, bankruptcies 35%, poverty rates 45%, and unemployment rates 10%. We ranked the counties on each of the categories and then indexed each category. We then added those indices together and indexed that.
In our study, a financially healthy county means people there have low average debt as a percent of income, along with a low chance of being affected by personal bankruptcies, poverty or unemployment.
