Credit unions by state, compared on their federal filings

Why the filing changes the question

A list of offers answers “which one has the best offer today?”. That is a fair question, though the answer depends on your credit and on the day. The filing answers a different one: “what kind of institution is this?”. Take the two largest. Navy Federal Credit Union holds $204.4B for 15.52M members, about $13,170 a member, with a net worth ratio of 11.65% and 1.58% of its loans at least two months behind. State Employees' Credit Union holds $60.0B for 3.00M members, about $20,002 a member, with 10.12% and 2.38%. Neither set of numbers is a verdict, but they are real, comparable, and published under federal rules, and a quarter later they will be updated by the same process.

That matters more among the smaller names. A credit union with two branches may have a loan book that is very clean or very stretched, a cushion of 20% or 7%, a growing membership or a falling one. Its website will not say. Its filing will, and you can read that filing here in the same form as any other. Of the 4,299 filers, 1,906 hold under $50 million and only 479 hold $1 billion or more, so the institution near you is more likely to be small than to be one you have heard of.

The picture by state

The number of credit unions has little to do with population. Texas has the most, 380, then Pennsylvania with 269 and New York with 268, while Alaska has 8. By assets, the order changes: California leads with $323.4B, followed by Virginia with $286.4B, the home state of the largest credit union of all. Each square below opens one state: the list of filers, the largest of them, the offices of credit unions based elsewhere and a short reading of what stands out.

State figures describe what is based in the state. A credit union’s members are all counted at its main office, wherever they live, and the largest serve people well beyond that state. In the other direction, a state’s list can leave out institutions that are very visible locally: Florida has 146 offices of credit unions based elsewhere, and Georgia 123. Every state page counts those and names the largest, and the full table puts all 51 side by side.

What each number tells you

Assets and members give the scale, and so the range of services a credit union can pay for: branches, an app, a call center open late. They say nothing about whether those services are good. Set one against the other for a useful check, since assets per member vary widely, and a high figure can mean a narrow field or a business loan book.

Loans are what a credit union does with the money. A low ratio of loans to shares means that a good part of the money sits in other assets. That can be a safe choice, but it may also bring in less to share with members. Net worth is the cushion: what would remain if everything owed were taken from assets. The filed ratio lets you compare it across any two institutions, and a full page explains the federal scale.

Delinquency is the share of loans two or more months behind. Federally insured credit unions together report 0.96%. A very high rate at a small institution can come down to a few loans, and the guide to the rate gives the medians by size. Earnings tell you whether this year has added to the cushion. Branches are the count of offices the credit union reports. Member growth follows one charter over twelve months, so it counts any members a charter took over.

Who can join

This is the question that lists tend to skip, and the file cannot answer it. Each credit union serves a field of membership. The NCUA’s page on fields of membership sets out three federal charter types: a single common bond, multiple common bonds and a community. State charters follow state rules. In practice, that means your employer, your relatives, where you live, work, worship or study, or a group you belong to.

A name is a poor guide. Some credit unions also describe a way in through an association. We read 17 membership pages and describe what they say in credit unions anyone can join. Others, some of them very large, stay not verified, because their sites refused our reader, their conditions restrict that use, or the rule did not appear, and we did not go looking for the answer elsewhere. For those and for all other names, the answer on this site is to confirm with the credit union. The steps for joining are the same almost everywhere.

Is your money insured?

Federal share insurance covers $250,000 per owner, per credit union, per ownership category. The categories matter: single accounts, your share of joint accounts, and IRA and Keogh retirement accounts are counted separately, and a revocable trust has its own limit per eligible beneficiary. The fund carries the full faith and credit of the United States, and the calculator adds up what you hold.

Not every filer has federal insurance. Of the 4,299 in the file, 85 state-chartered credit unions in nine states do not, led by Ohio with 35 and Illinois with 15. Some of them are privately insured, which the NCUA notes is not backed by the United States. The tables flag each one and a page lists them all. If you want to set this against a bank, our comparison of the two federal insurers shows what lines up and what we could not read.

The federal capital line

Under 12 CFR 702.102, a net worth ratio of 7% or more is well capitalized on this test. At 6% to 6.99% a credit union is adequately capitalized, at 4% to 5.99% undercapitalized, at 2% to 3.99% significantly undercapitalized, and under 2% critically undercapitalized. Below the top line, requirements begin, with earnings retention first and a net worth restoration plan at the undercapitalized level. Credit unions over $500 million in assets also face a risk-based test or a leverage alternative, and new credit unions have their own scale.

In this file 52 federally insured filers report under 7%. That is a small group among 4,214, though not an empty one, and being on the wrong side of the line for a quarter does not by itself mean trouble. By state, West Virginia shows the highest combined ratio at 14.19% and Idaho the lowest at 8.84%. Late loans run from 0.39% in Rhode Island to 2.09% in North Carolina, where one lender dominates the total.

Fewer names, and a few large ones

Between June 30, 2025 and June 30, 2026, the file went from 4,460 filers to 4,299. The file records that a charter stopped filing, not why. The ten largest hold 19.2% of all federally insured assets, and the top hundred, listed on their own page, hold close to half of the total. In Alaska, the three largest hold 94.4% of the assets based there. In Maine they hold 20.6%, the most even split of any state.

Our growth figures follow the same charter across two filings, so they count any members a charter took over, and a charter that moves its head office carries its totals to another state. The file marks neither. For share insurance, the NCUA says deposits at a credit union that merges into another stay separately insured for six months.

Credit unions and banks

The federal consumer site describes credit unions as not-for-profit and owned by their members, with a volunteer board elected by those members and surplus income returned as dividends. Unlike banks, it says, credit unions return surplus income to members. Whether a given credit union beats a given bank on a given product is a matter for two written quotes, since the averages hide wide differences. The NCUA publishes a table of average rates using data from a private supplier, and we link to it and do not copy it. The comparison page and its calculators show what a quoted gap is worth to you.

How to use this site in five steps

1. Open your state in the tool above or in the grid. Those near a state line should open both.
2. Sort and filter. Set a minimum size, insured only, then read the top of the list by branches or by net worth.
3. Shortlist two or three names. Compare them side by side, with the health check for any figure that surprises you.
4. Confirm that you qualify on each credit union’s own membership page.
5. Ask for rates and fees in writing, then enter them in a calculator on this site.

What this site does not do

It does not rate credit unions on anyone’s behalf. No supervisory rating appears in the file we read, and our five tests are ours, published so that you can disagree with them. It does not say a credit union will accept you. It shows no live rates or fees. It does not tell you where to keep your money, and it gives general information rather than financial or legal advice. It takes no applications, has no paid links, and earns nothing from any credit union. The figures are what each institution reported, as published by the agency, and a quarter is a snapshot: something can have changed since then, as a filing can be amended and a credit union can merge. We update the data by hand when a new file is published, and each page shows which quarter you are reading.

Every page of the site