Gulf Coast's debt-per-capita among Florida's best

SARASOTA — Counties along the Gulf Coast are among the best in Florida in terms of debt management, according to a recent index created by SmartAsset, a financial technology company.

The index analyzed three categories of debt — credit cards, auto and mortgage — to determine the overall debt index for each county, (the highest possible score being 100), and three Gulf Coast counties cracked the top 10 in Florida.

Pinellas County received the best rating of the Gulf Coast counties and the fifth best in Florida, with a debt index of 80.76. Sarasota County and Charlotte County ranked sixth and eighth, with index scores of 80.47 and 78.64, respectively. The Florida county with the best overall debt index is Taylor, which has an index of 87.29.

SmartAsset, which is based out of New York, calculated the per capita debt-to-income ratio for each of the three categories and averaged them to create the debt index. In August, SmartAsset conducted a similar study for credit card debt, and Sarasota County was the top Gulf Coast county.