States with most child support enforcement cases

Name: PlainChildSupport Caseload Rankings: Child Support Statistics CSV
Creator: PlainChildSupport
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Caseload size is a population story. What each state actually distributes per open case is a different ordering entirely, and the federal tables do not publish it.

Compiled by PlainChildSupport

11,877,092
Active cases, all IV-D agencies: 4.5x
Spread in collections per case: 33 of 51
Rank shifts >10 places

The verdict

Texas carries the largest caseload at 1,488,340 open cases, but ranks #7 of 51 on distributed collections per case. Across the 51 states meeting the sample floor, per-case distribution runs from $907 in Delaware to $4,037 in New Jersey, a 4.5x spread - and 33 of them sit more than 10 places apart on the two orderings. Caseload size and per-case distribution are not the same question.

According to PlainChildSupport's state guideline dataset.

$4,037
highest per open case: New Jersey: $907
lowest per open case: Delaware: 33 of 51
states shifting >10 places between the two rankings: 11,877,092
open cases in the federal record

Data updated September 2026

Total child support enforcement caseloads by U.S. state Title IV-D agency, drawn from the HHS Office of Child Support Services FY2023 preliminary report: 11,877,092 active cases and $26.4 billion distributed. Larger states generally carry more cases due to population size; the cases-with-orders share beside each row is OCSS Table P-64, not a collection rate. See our methodology for definitions.

Distributed collections per open case, highest 10 of 51 states meeting the 1,000-case sample floor. Computed from OCSE Table P-4 against Table P-52; the federal tables publish the two figures separately and not this ratio.

#	State	Total Cases	Collections ($M)	Cases with Orders %
1	Texas	1,488,340	$4,247.8M	85.8%
2	California	1,058,674	$2,420.9M	87.9%
3	Michigan	751,691	$1,155.2M	76.9%
4	Ohio	692,492	$1,415.6M	93.1%
5	New York	614,875	$1,553.5M	88.2%
6	Florida	589,704	$1,409.8M	80.5%
7	North Carolina	348,386	$613.5M	85.2%
8	Illinois	346,651	$670.9M	85.1%
9	Wisconsin	335,770	$619.4M	85.1%
10	Georgia	312,673	$633.6M	89.5%
11	Tennessee	302,880	$547.1M	84.2%
12	Missouri	285,128	$489M	84.6%
13	Pennsylvania	281,070	$1,093.4M	91.5%
14	Virginia	256,272	$561.2M	88.3%
15	Washington	244,057	$596.1M	91.0%
16	Mississippi	235,575	$319.6M	85.7%
17	Kentucky	233,158	$315.2M	88.9%
18	Louisiana	230,902	$392.2M	89.1%
19	New Jersey	218,454	$882M	91.6%
20	Indiana	213,935	$482.9M	93.8%
21	Massachusetts	190,285	$563.6M	82.7%
22	Alabama	182,253	$298.5M	90.4%
23	Minnesota	181,635	$495.7M	84.5%
24	Maryland	161,932	$418.9M	86.6%
25	Oklahoma	155,818	$291.6M	82.3%
26	South Carolina	147,458	$269.9M	83.0%
27	Arkansas	145,678	$252.6M	64.1%
28	Iowa	138,524	$291.8M	94.1%
29	Oregon	134,266	$303.5M	86.6%
30	Arizona	125,862	$274.7M	92.7%
31	Colorado	124,899	$284.4M	85.9%
32	Kansas	123,142	$185.2M	85.1%
33	Connecticut	116,518	$207.4M	94.4%
34	Nebraska	93,799	$196.7M	85.9%
35	Idaho	84,196	$156.1M	91.2%
36	Utah	82,796	$190.7M	81.2%
37	Nevada	81,852	$174.4M	89.6%
38	West Virginia	77,541	$144.3M	91.1%
39	Delaware	73,679	$66.8M	76.4%
40	New Mexico	48,898	$104.6M	84.6%
41	Hawaii	48,445	$82.8M	83.7%
42	Rhode Island	47,225	$71.9M	73.9%
43	District of Columbia	40,668	$40.5M	76.9%
44	South Dakota	39,452	$91.6M	82.0%
45	Alaska	34,746	$89.2M	95.1%
46	Maine	34,489	$87M	94.8%
47	North Dakota	30,715	$103.2M	88.8%
48	New Hampshire	28,629	$72.9M	91.7%
49	Montana	28,342	$62.8M	86.2%
50	Wyoming	21,251	$62.1M	94.8%
51	Vermont	11,412	$36.2M	89.9%

Key takeaways

Two orderings, one federal table

Caseload volume and distributed collections per open case are separate measures: 33 of the 51 states meeting the sample floor sit more than 10 places apart on the two.
Per-case distribution is computed here from OCSE Table P-4 against Table P-52. The federal report publishes both figures but not the ratio, so this ordering exists only on this page and should be read against those source tables.
States with fewer than 1,000 open cases are excluded from the per-case ordering because a ratio over a small caseload moves on a handful of cases. They remain in the caseload table, which needs no floor.
A higher figure is not a performance verdict: per-case distribution reflects case mix, the balance of current support against arrears, and state economic conditions as much as agency practice. Registry comparison only.

Source: HHS Office of Child Support Services FY2023 preliminary report, Tables P-52 (caseload), P-4 (collections) and P-64 (cases with orders). This information is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice

Download the child-support statistics extract cited on this page: child-support-statistics.csv (NCSL · OCSS · ACS · CC BY 4.0).

Cite this page

PlainChildSupport, “States Ranked by Child Support Caseload.” Compiled from NCSL/state child support guidelines, OCSS FY2023 Preliminary Data Report (ACF Form 157), and Census ACS median household income; data as of September 2026. https://plainchildsupport.com/rankings/most-cases/

Formal citation formats (APA / MLA)

APA: PlainChildSupport. (2026). States Ranked by Child Support Caseload. Retrieved September 11, 2026, from https://plainchildsupport.com/rankings/most-cases/

MLA: "States Ranked by Child Support Caseload." PlainChildSupport, 2026, https://plainchildsupport.com/rankings/most-cases/.

You are welcome to quote these figures with attribution to PlainChildSupport and the underlying source. The URL above is stable. See our Terms of Use for what reuse is permitted.

Every figure on PlainChildSupport is rendered directly from official state guidelines and federal enforcement data, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Our database was last rebuilt on 2026-09-09.

PlainChildSupport publishes state guideline data and federal enforcement statistics for informational purposes only. It is not legal or financial advice, a calculator result is not an order, and every state allows deviations a court decides case by case, so confirm any figure with the state child-support agency or an attorney before you rely on it. Appropriate use.