Beaufort County residents are faring well as compared to other counties when it comes to personal debt.

A recent study by SmartAsset, a financial technology company that conducts studies across the country, found that Beaufort County is ranked No. 10 out of the state’s 100 counties for the lowest per capita debt. SmartAsset looked at credit card, automobile and mortgage debt as compared to local, per capita income.

The top three counties were Anson, Yancey and Edgecombe, respectively.

According to the study, credit card debt accounts for 9.1 percent of Beaufort County residents’ income. Mortgage debt accounts for 65.5 percent, and automobile debt accounts for 17.2 percent. The percentages were determined based on an income per capita of $21,789 for the county.

Beaufort County’s low debt compared to other counties could be attributed to the Great Recession in 2008, according to Bruce Elder, president and CEO of First South Bank.

“With respect to consumer mortgage and consumer loan levels, those are down, and they’re down quite sharply,” Elder said. “The largest single factor for that is the recession itself.”

He said when the economy took a downturn, consumers made an effort to reduce debt, whether voluntary or involuntarily, by closing credit cards, not buying homes and/or avoiding long-term mortgage payments and purchasing fewer vehicles.

Beaufort County had about $145 million in mortgage debts and loans in 2010, but that number fell to $105 million as of last year, according to Elder.

Another aspect of the county’s high ranking is the younger generations’ tendency to save more money than older generations.

“Millennials, as a group, have shown to be more debt averse than their parents or, you know, Gen X-ers and baby boomers,” Elder said. “They don’t necessarily want to own a home right away.”

Elder said the ratio of savings to income across the country was reported as 1.9 percent in 2005, but in September 2016, it had jumped to 5.7 percent.

He said that these types of national trends are likely similar to what is happening in Beaufort County.

Although the report of relatively low debt would seem to spell disaster for the local financial industry, Elder said he thinks it’s more important to have a strong economy in general, rather than banks loaning out money to consumers who accumulate a lot of debt.

“I would think that the underlying thing is that the best thing for banks is to have a healthy economy,” Elder said.

Attempts to contact other banks in the area for comment were unsuccessful.