How We Calculate Complaints per 100,000 Residents

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau publishes every consumer complaint it forwards to a company, tagged with the consumer's state. A raw count of those complaints mostly measures how many people live somewhere: California will always be near the top. To compare states fairly we divide by population.

per_100k = complaints in the last 12 months ÷ state population × 100,000

• Complaints in the last 12 months — the rolling count we already show, filtered to consumers who gave this state.
• State population — the latest U.S. Census Bureau estimate.
• The rank we show is this figure compared with every other state and the District of Columbia.

What it does and doesn't mean

• A higher figure means residents of that state file more complaints per person. That can reflect more problems — or more awareness of the CFPB, more banking activity, or better internet access to the complaint form.
• Complaints are unverified accounts from consumers. The CFPB does not confirm the facts of each one.
• It is not a measure of any single company; a company's own page carries its own numbers.

Sources: CFPB Consumer Complaint Database; U.S. Census Bureau population estimates. Back to the overview.