Report: Nevada is the nation’s most stressed state

Staff and wire reports

Thursday, April 15, 2010 | 11:32 a.m.

Nevada is the most economically stressed state in the nation, according to the monthly Associated Press Economic Stress Index.

Nevada leads the ranks due to its high foreclosure and unemployment rates, and three Nevada counties are among the top 20 most stressed in the analysis of February data, which was released this week.

Nevada’s Lyon County had a score of 28.42, putting it in the No. 2 spot on the national list, behind Imperial County, Calif., which scored 31.29.

Nye County came in 10th on the list of counties, with a score of 24.4, and Clark County was No. 17, with a score of 22.81.

The AP's Economic Stress Index found the average county's score in February was 11.8. That was down slightly from January's reading of 11.9, the highest average county score since the AP started publishing the index nearly a year ago. The reading in December was 10.8, the previous high.

The index calculates a score from 1 to 100 based on a county's unemployment, foreclosure and bankruptcy rates. A higher score indicates more stress. Under a rough rule of thumb, a county is considered stressed when its score exceeds 11.

The nation's most economically distressed states were, in order: Nevada (21.4), Michigan (17.84), California (16.94), Florida (16.26) and Illinois (15.37). All saw their scores decline from January to February.

Once again, North Dakota was the least stressed state in February with a score of 5.48. Next best were South Dakota (5.97), Nebraska (6.45), Vermont (7.64) and Louisiana. All those states, too, had lower stress scores in February than in January.

Nevada had the steepest year-to-year increase in the stress score for February.