Where people complain about debt collectors

In 2025 people sent the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau 283,203 complaints about debt collection, 5.3 times the 53,868 they sent in 2020. Across the 50 states and DC that is 82.6 complaints for every 100,000 residents.

This page reads those numbers state by state. They come from our data study of the CFPB's complaint database, which counts complaints per state and year for each product and divides each count by the Census Bureau's population estimate for that year. The study's tables are free to download, and its map shows every state.

Where the rate is highest

Georgia's rate is about 2.5 times the national rate. The lowest rates were in Puerto Rico, Vermont, South Dakota, Maine and Montana.

Why the study counts per resident

By raw count, the list starts with Texas and Florida, two of the most populous states. Per resident, California falls to number 22. A big state collects more complaints because it has more people. The CFPB says to consider population when comparing places, which is why the study reports both the count and the rate, and why this page ranks by the rate.

What the counts cannot tell you

A complaint count measures who complained. The CFPB says its database "is not a statistical sample of consumers' experiences in the marketplace." People in one state may know about the CFPB, or be pointed to it, more often than people in another. A complaint is published only after the company responds or 15 days pass, and complaints the CFPB refers to other regulators are left out.

So a high rate means many people in that state used this channel. Whether collectors there behave worse is a separate question the counts cannot answer, and a low rate is just as silent. The national total went from 68,107 in 2023 to 283,203 in 2025; the counts record that jump and give no reason for it.

What happened to the complaints

Companies answered 97.1 percent of the 2025 debt collection complaints on time. In the CFPB's own categories:

The rest were late or still open. Read plainly: most complaints ended with an explanation from the company. About one in four brought relief of some other kind. Money back was rare.

If a collector is breaking the rules

Federal law sets the same floor in every state, and some states add their own rules. Start with when and how often a collector may contact you and the rules for texts and email. If you doubt the debt is yours, make the collector prove it first. If a collector is breaking the rules, you can submit a complaint to the CFPB, and once it is published it becomes one of the counts on this page.

About the numbers

Release v1.0.0, from a snapshot taken 2026-10-28. Counts follow the state on the consumer's mailing address; complaints that give no state are counted nationally and in no state. Rates use the Census Bureau's July 1 estimate for the same year. The study names no company, and neither does this page.