Connecticut shoulders 15 times the state debt per person that Tennessee does美国各州债务负担排行榜

Divide a state's public debt by its population, then by GDP per capita, and Connecticut comes out at 27.4% against Tennessee's 2.5% — a rough measure of how much future risk each state is carrying.

You don't need a brochure to judge a state's economy. Take the government debt, spread it across residents, divide by GDP per capita, and one number appears. The higher it is, the heavier the future burden.

The deepest debt isn't the poorest place

Connecticut ranks first, owing 27.4 dollars for every 100 dollars of output. Once a tax haven for the rich, it is now dragged down by a pension hole that rolls downhill and lands on the middle class.

New Jersey comes second at 26.5%, where an ageing population and generous public-employee benefits keep the books in a permanent shell game. High property taxes are the result.

Hawaii is third at 24.6%. Behind the tourist paradise sit the high costs of island infrastructure and logistics.

High output doesn't mean low debt

Massachusetts produces over 100,000 dollars per person and still ranks seventh: rebuilding an ancient subway and funding social programmes pulls the debt back up to a dangerous height.

California and New York owe the most in absolute terms. Only a stream of thriving companies creating wealth keeps their ratios down at twelfth and thirteenth.

What the lightest states have

Tennessee ranks fiftieth at 2.5%, with just 1,760 dollars of debt per person. Indiana sits at 2.7%, Idaho at 3.0%. These states have neither spectacular output nor spectacular borrowing.

Connecticut's 27.4% is more than ten times Tennessee's. Cross a state line in the same country and the thickness of the future bill changes.