LANSING – As bad as the economy has been in Michigan, a study assessing economic distress among the states based on the foreclosure rate, changes in unemployment and the number of people receiving food stamps shows a number of states rank higher in terms of overall distress.

The study, part of the Kaiser Family Foundation’s StateHealthFacts.Org names Nevada as the state with the highest economic stress factors. Michigan ranks Sixteenth, tied with Colorado and West Virginia, one of the poorest states, ranks the lowest in terms of economic distress at Fifty-first when the District of Columbia is included.

The study puts greater weight on the rate of change in the three categories. So for, example, West Virginia had the same unemployment rate last month as it did in November 2007, so it ranked 51st in that, while Rhode Island’s unemployment rate increased 4.1 percentage points from November 2007 to last month, putting it 1st in that category.

Michigan was ranked 16 in terms of distress because it ranked 5 in terms of foreclosures (with one for every 309 houses), 14 in terms of the change in unemployment rate from November 2007 to last month and 45 in terms of the percentage change in the number of residents getting food stamps from September 2007 to last September.

Nevada ranked first in economic distress because it ranked first in foreclosures, with one house in foreclosure for every 76, 5 in terms of the percentage change in unemployment rates and 4 in terms of the percentage change in those getting food stamps.

Michigan has the highest unemployment rate in the United States, hitting 9.6 percent in November, and has one of the largest populations getting food stamps. However, the foreclosure crisis has hit some of the faster growing states harder with Florida, Arizona and California ranking ahead of Michigan in terms of foreclosure rates.

Those three states also ranked higher in terms of overall economic distress, according to the study, with Florida ranked 2, Arizona 5 and California 6. Idaho came in at 3 and Georgia at 4, and rounding out the top 10 were Rhode Island at 7, Oregon at 8, Indiana at 9 and Maryland at 10.

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