Nearly 10 percent of Virginia households have used short-term credit in the form of payday, pawnshop, and auto-title loans.

A study by the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service released Tuesday shows that more than 275,000 financially struggling families in Virginia have turned to alternative financial-service providers to pay for basic needs such as food, housing and transportation. They also are using the high-cost loans to pay for unexpected expenses stemming from job losses, car repairs and medical bills.

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Nearly 120,000 Virginia households — 4 percent — used payday loans, according to the study, which analyzed 2009 national banking statistics from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.