ROCKINGHAM — Anson and Richmond have the fourth- and fifth-lowest debt ratios among North Carolina’s 100 counties, according to a recent study by New York financial tech firm SmartAsset.

Credit card debt accounts for 10 percent of the average Richmond County resident’s income, auto debt is at 15.8 percent and mortgage debt is 67.8 percent, according to data the firm provided.

In neighboring Anson County, credit card debt is 9.1 percent of income, auto debt accounts for 15.9 percent and mortgage debt is 73.1 percent.

Richmond County’s average individual yearly income is $17,236, while Anson’s lags behind at $16,752.

“Our study is designed to show where people are doing the best job managing their debt,” said A.J. Smith, SmartAsset vice president and managing editor. “We established a per-capita debt-to-income ratio for each county in the U.S. in the categories of mortgage debt, auto debt and credit card debt. Each of these factors were weighed equally on our index, and the counties that scored highest ranked at the top.”

Lenoir, Yancey and Edgecombe counties take the study’s top three spots for the lowest debt-to-income ratios, followed by Anson in fourth and Richmond rounding out the top five.

Nationally, Anson County had the 797th-lowest debt ratio among 2,200 counties surveyed.

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Staff reports