US Counties With the Highest Vacancy Rates
3,203 US counties ranked by vacancy rate, from highest to lowest. First are Daggett County, UT (77.3%), Kalawao County, HI (76.8%) and Lake and Peninsula Borough, AK (76.2%). The middle one of the 3,203 has 15.1%.
What this measures
The percentage of all homes and apartments that nobody lives in. The middle county is 15%, which surprises people. It counts vacation and seasonal homes, so the top of the list is resort and outdoor-recreation areas, such as Daggett County, Utah at 77%, not abandoned towns. A high number can tell two very different stories, and this measure cannot tell them apart. Source: Census ACS 5-year.
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 | Puerto Rico | 21.3% |
| 2 | Maine | 21.1% |
| 3 | Vermont | 20.1% |
| 4 | Alaska | 18.2% |
| 5 | West Virginia | 16.1% |
| 6 | Florida | 15.2% |
| 7 | Mississippi | 15.1% |
| 8 | Alabama | 15% |
| 9 | Louisiana | 14.8% |
| 10 | New Hampshire | 14.4% |
| 11 | Arkansas | 14% |
| 12 | South Carolina | 13.8% |
| 13 | Delaware | 13.5% |
| 14 | Hawaii | 13.4% |
| 15 | Montana | 13.4% |
| 16 | Wyoming | 13.4% |
| 17 | North Dakota | 13.3% |
| 18 | New Mexico | 13.1% |
| 19 | North Carolina | 13% |
| 20 | Oklahoma | 12.5% |
| 21 | Michigan | 12.2% |
| 22 | Missouri | 11.6% |
| 23 | Wisconsin | 11.1% |
| 24 | Arizona | 11% |
| 25 | South Dakota | 10.9% |
| 26 | Kentucky | 10.9% |
| 27 | Idaho | 10.7% |
| 28 | Georgia | 10.6% |
| 29 | Tennessee | 10.6% |
| 30 | New York | 10.2% |
| 31 | Rhode Island | 9.85% |
| 32 | District of Columbia | 9.7% |
| 33 | Kansas | 9.69% |
| 34 | Texas | 9.62% |
| 35 | Nevada | 9.48% |
| 36 | Pennsylvania | 9.42% |
| 37 | Minnesota | 9.39% |
| 38 | Indiana | 9.2% |
| 39 | Virginia | 8.99% |
| 40 | Iowa | 8.65% |
| 41 | Colorado | 8.63% |
| 42 | Ohio | 8.38% |
| 43 | Massachusetts | 8.38% |
| 44 | Utah | 8.23% |
| 45 | Illinois | 8.11% |
| 46 | Maryland | 8.09% |
| 47 | Nebraska | 8.03% |
| 48 | New Jersey | 7.88% |
| 49 | California | 7.55% |
| 50 | Connecticut | 7.54% |
| 51 | Oregon | 7.46% |
| 52 | Washington | 7.42% |
More on vacancy rate
- US Counties With the Lowest Vacancy Rates
- Vacancy rate 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.