US Counties With the Highest Returns Reporting Unemployment Compensation
3,143 US counties ranked by returns reporting unemployment compensation, from highest to lowest. First are Colusa County, CA (19.7%), Imperial County, CA (17.4%) and Tulare County, CA (13%). The middle one of the 3,143 has 1.79%.
What this measures
The percentage of tax returns reporting unemployment benefits during the year. Source: IRS Statistics of Income.
For most measures, a national ranking mostly sorts places by income and by how urban they are. Each county’s own page compares it with the 50 counties most like it instead, which is often the fairer view.
The 100 highest counties
Every state, highest first
Each state’s own published figure, not an average of its counties.
| Rank | State | % |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rhode Island | 6.9% |
| 2 | Massachusetts | 6.24% |
| 3 | Connecticut | 6.02% |
| 4 | California | 5.75% |
| 5 | Washington | 5.55% |
| 6 | New Jersey | 4.93% |
| 7 | Oregon | 4.73% |
| 8 | Minnesota | 4.39% |
| 9 | Pennsylvania | 3.79% |
| 10 | New York | 3.73% |
| 11 | Hawaii | 3.6% |
| 12 | Nevada | 3.19% |
| 13 | Iowa | 3.17% |
| 14 | Illinois | 3.14% |
| 15 | Idaho | 3.1% |
| 16 | West Virginia | 3.08% |
| 17 | Vermont | 3.08% |
| 18 | Michigan | 3.06% |
| 19 | Montana | 3.02% |
| 20 | Alaska | 3% |
| 21 | District of Columbia | 2.92% |
| 22 | Maine | 2.48% |
| 23 | Texas | 2.32% |
| 24 | Wisconsin | 2.27% |
| 25 | Delaware | 2.25% |
| 26 | New Hampshire | 2.19% |
| 27 | Wyoming | 2.19% |
| 28 | North Dakota | 2.18% |
| 29 | New Mexico | 2.16% |
| 30 | Colorado | 2.15% |
| 31 | Utah | 2.07% |
| 32 | Missouri | 2.05% |
| 33 | Ohio | 2.03% |
| 34 | Kentucky | 1.91% |
| 35 | Maryland | 1.73% |
| 36 | Arizona | 1.64% |
| 37 | Arkansas | 1.58% |
| 38 | Oklahoma | 1.58% |
| 39 | Kansas | 1.51% |
| 40 | Indiana | 1.46% |
| 41 | Georgia | 1.43% |
| 42 | Tennessee | 1.35% |
| 43 | Louisiana | 1.34% |
| 44 | South Carolina | 1.22% |
| 45 | Virginia | 1.21% |
| 46 | South Dakota | 1.2% |
| 47 | Nebraska | 1.19% |
| 48 | Mississippi | 1.17% |
| 49 | Alabama | 0.986% |
| 50 | North Carolina | 0.958% |
| 51 | Florida | 0.913% |
More on returns reporting unemployment compensation
- US Counties With the Lowest Returns Reporting Unemployment Compensation
- Returns reporting unemployment compensation by US county: map by year and what it goes with
A ranking describes places, not the people in them, and a high or low place does not by itself say why. All US rankings.