US Counties With the Highest Vacant Housing Units
3,202 US counties ranked by vacant housing units, from highest to lowest. First are Kalawao County, HI (1697.67), Daggett County, UT (1195.45) and Hamilton County, NY (1133.28). The middle one of the 3,202 has 68.24.
What this measures
Homes and apartments that nobody lives in, including vacation homes and places for sale or rent. So a high number can mean a resort town or a town that is emptying out. Source: Census ACS 5-year.
This is a count, so it is ranked per 1,000 residents. Ranked by the raw total, it would just list the biggest counties.
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 | Per 1,000 residents |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Maine | 114.32 |
| 2 | Vermont | 104.77 |
| 3 | Puerto Rico | 103.19 |
| 4 | Alaska | 81.40 |
| 5 | West Virginia | 77.45 |
| 6 | Florida | 69.83 |
| 7 | Alabama | 68.67 |
| 8 | Mississippi | 68.12 |
| 9 | Louisiana | 67.26 |
| 10 | New Hampshire | 67.06 |
| 11 | North Dakota | 63.88 |
| 12 | Arkansas | 63.81 |
| 13 | Wyoming | 63.74 |
| 14 | Montana | 63.58 |
| 15 | South Carolina | 63.55 |
| 16 | Delaware | 61.39 |
| 17 | North Carolina | 59.36 |
| 18 | New Mexico | 58.87 |
| 19 | Michigan | 55.66 |
| 20 | Oklahoma | 55.13 |
| 21 | Missouri | 52.64 |
| 22 | Hawaii | 52.51 |
| 23 | Wisconsin | 51.72 |
| 24 | District of Columbia | 51.40 |
| 25 | South Dakota | 48.72 |
| 26 | Kentucky | 48.48 |
| 27 | Arizona | 47.56 |
| 28 | Tennessee | 46.77 |
| 29 | Georgia | 43.97 |
| 30 | New York | 43.81 |
| 31 | Idaho | 43.77 |
| 32 | Rhode Island | 43.56 |
| 33 | Kansas | 42.39 |
| 34 | Pennsylvania | 41.91 |
| 35 | Minnesota | 41.40 |
| 36 | Indiana | 39.90 |
| 37 | Nevada | 39.46 |
| 38 | Iowa | 38.61 |
| 39 | Texas | 38.58 |
| 40 | Virginia | 37.95 |
| 41 | Colorado | 37.78 |
| 42 | Ohio | 37.52 |
| 43 | Massachusetts | 36.12 |
| 44 | Nebraska | 34.97 |
| 45 | Illinois | 34.79 |
| 46 | Maryland | 33.39 |
| 47 | Oregon | 32.34 |
| 48 | Connecticut | 32.20 |
| 49 | New Jersey | 32.10 |
| 50 | Washington | 31.28 |
| 51 | Utah | 29.47 |
| 52 | California | 27.97 |
More on vacant housing units
- US Counties With the Lowest Vacant Housing Units
- Vacant housing units 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.