Clark County at No. 15 on list of most-stressed counties

Staff and wire reports

Thursday, March 24, 2011 | 9:35 a.m.

Three Nevada counties, including Clark County, appear on the Associated Press' monthly list today of the 20 most-stressed counties in the country.

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

Nevada had by far the worst Stress score: 21.41. It posted the worst results in all three index categories: A seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate of 14.2 percent, a foreclosure rate of 6.5 percent and a bankruptcy rate of 2.7 percent.

Among counties in Nevada, Lyon ranked No. 2 in the nation in stress, according to the analysis. Nye County ranked No. 7 and Clark County was No. 15, with a Stress score of 22.74.

Fourteen of the top 20 were in California, with Imperial County, Calif., coming in as the nation's most stressed with a score of 29.32.

After Nevada, the next-most-stressed states in January were California (16.72), Florida (16.36), Arizona (15.27) and Michigan (14.86). Of those, only Nevada and Florida saw month-to-month improvement. But all except Arizona were healthier than they were a year ago.

Because of tourism, Nevada and Florida fared slightly better in January. The hotel occupancy rate in Las Vegas rose 6.6 percent from December and nearly 8 percent year over year.

The national economy has come far in the past year. But it hasn't fully recovered from the recession that ended in June 2009 - the worst downturn since the Great Depression. A little more than half the nation's counties, and just under half the states, were deemed stressed in January 2011.

The healthiest states in January were in the Plains and New England: North Dakota (5.24), Nebraska (5.85), South Dakota (6.19), Vermont (6.87) and New Hampshire (7.77).