Average American Debt : Household Debt Statistics

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• The average debt in America is $104,215 across mortgages, auto loans, student loans, and credit cards.
• Debt peaks between ages 40 and 49 among consumers with excellent credit scores.
• The largest percentages of the average consumer debt balance are mortgages. 

The average debt an American owes is $104,215 across mortgage loans, home equity lines of credit, auto loans, credit card debt, student loan debt, and other debts like personal loans. 

Data from Experian breaks down the average debt a consumer holds based on type, age, credit score, and state. We’ve included supplementary data from the New York Federal Reserve Bank. Both data sets are updated quarterly. 

Average debt by type of debt

Here’s an up-to-date breakdown of the average debt per consumer and total balances across all consumers from Experian data from the third quarter of 2023 and Fed data from the first quarter of 2024, respectively. 

Mortgage debt is most Americans’ largest debt, exceeding other types by a wide margin. Student loans are the next largest type of debt among those listed in the data, followed closely by auto loans. 

Average debt by age

Debt tends to peak somewhere around middle age. As a whole, this suggests that Americans tend to pay off debt going into retirement and tend to keep debt balances low in retirement, especially people over age 70. The largest source of debt for those under 30 is mortgages.

Here’s how the average debt balance breaks down per person by age group according to Experian data. Scroll right to see more data. 

Average debt by credit score range

Here’s how average debt breaks down across consumers within the five credit score risk levels according to Experian data from the third quarters of 2022 and 2023.

Credit scores are deeply tied to debt, affecting access to credit and interest rates. 

We can observe this among consumers with poor credit, who have relatively low debts likely because many traditional loans and credit cards are not accessible to them. Additionally, younger people tend to have lower credit scores as they haven’t had the time to build credit like older consumers. Consumers who are 18-29 also have the lowest average debt compared to other age groups.

On the other hand, consumers with excellent credit scores have the lowest average debts among all risk categories. Excellent credit will earn you lower interest rates, which may contribute to the lower average debt among consumers with excellent credit. Additionally, older people tend to have higher credit scores and lower average debts. The average credit score among the Silent Generation (77+) is a 760, the highest of any generation. 

Average credit scores have consistently risen over the last few decades. The current average FICO score is 718, an all-time high, and 64.1% of consumers have a FICO score of 700 or above.

Average debt by state

Where someone lives tends to have a big influence on the amount of debt they accumulate. On average, residents in California, Oregon, and Washington have the highest debts while 

While some parts of the country have higher housing prices and costs of living, it can be lower in other states. California residents, for example, tend to have higher average mortgage balances than many other states with more affordable housing, like Texas and Ohio. 

Here is the average debt by type for residents of each US state, according to Experian data from the third quarter of 2023. 

This analysis excludes medical debt, which tends to fall more heavily on residents in Southern states, many of which did not expand Medicaid. As a result, the average credit score in these states is significantly lower than the average credit scores of states outside this region.

How to start paying off debt

Holding large amounts of debt, especially high-interest debt, can quickly get expensive.

Large amounts of debt can also lower your credit score by raising your credit utilization ratio or simply by causing you to miss a payment here and there, resulting in a delinquency on your credit report. As of the end of the first quarter of 2024, the delinquency rate on credit card loans is at 3.16%, which is the highest it’s been since 2012.

Choose a repayment method and set a goal

Whichever method you choose, the first step is going to be to take stock of everything you owe, how much you owe in total, and the interest rates. Then, you can start to prioritize what you owe. 

Two popular strategies are the debt avalanche and the debt snowball. The debt snowball tackles the smallest debt first to build momentum, working through bigger debts next, while the debt avalanche focuses on paying down higher-interest debt first to decrease the amount you pay overall. Depending on how your debt looks, these repayment methods can help you pay off debt fast.

Consider consolidating or refinancing while interest rates are low

For borrowers with credit card debt and other relatively small debts with high interest rates, consolidating debt could make them more manageable. Debt consolidation is a process where you take out one large loan to pay off all your smaller loans, effectively condensing them into one larger total. You can also consolidate credit card debt with a balance transfer card. The best debt consolidation loans will have a lower interest rate.

You can also consolidate credit card debt with a balance transfer card. Like consolidation loans, the best balance transfer credit cards will have a lower interest rate, but will also come with an introductory 0% APR period that usually lasts 12-18 months. 

Debt relief plans

If you need outside help with your debts, it may be worth your time to look into debt relief options. There are several options available to you, each of which differs in how it helps you pay off your debt and the urgency of your debt problem.

You can enlist the help of a nonprofit credit counseling organization, which will help you sort out your finances and pay off your debts. In extenuating circumstances, they may even recommend a debt management plan in which your credit counselor negotiates the terms of your loans with your creditors on your behalf. They can secure lower interest rates or lower monthly payments, though they usually won’t be able to lower the actual amount of money you owe. 

For more dire debt problems, a debt settlement plan will reduce your overall debt amount. While this will hurt your credit score, you may be able to reduce your debt by upt to 60%.

While you can negotiate a debt settlement on your own, most people hire debt settlement companies to negotiate on their behalf. You can find our guide to the best debt settlement companies here.

Frequently asked questions about average debt (FAQ)