Which age group has the most credit card debt?
Average American credit card debt by age
Analysis of the debt share in the U.S. shows that people aged 40-49 hold the largest amount of debt at $4.21 trillion in total. People aged 50-59 have the most credit card debt in total at $0.21 trillion, and people aged 30-39 have the most student loan debt at $0.5 trillion.
White Americans have the highest average credit card debt of any racial group at $6,930. Higher income corresponds to larger credit card balances, but consumers in the middle income brackets are the most likely to have credit card debt.
Generation X has the most credit card debt among Americans. See where the other generations fall and who owes the least. If you're struggling to pay off credit card debt, you are far from alone: One in three Americans have more credit card debt than savings both in 2023 and 2024, a Bankrate survey shows.
Baby Boomers, Gen X Have Most Credit Cards on Average
(Gen Zers are ages 9 to 25 this year.) The youngest adult consumers, ages 18 to 25, had an average of two credit cards each, with only a slight increase from 2021 and 2022.
Across the different age groups in 2022, Gen Z, ages 18-25, had the lowest average credit card debt, at $2,854.
A consumer's age may also influence how much debt they carry on their credit card accounts. According to the most recent Transunion data from Q1 2023, those aged 40-49 had the highest average credit card balance of $7,600. The age group with the lowest average credit card balance was those under 29 at $2,900.
Running up $50,000 in credit card debt is not impossible. About two million Americans do it every year.
According to the GOBankingRates survey, 28% of Americans under the age of 24 have over $1,000 in credit card debt. Of those under 24 with credit card debt, 16% have debt between $1,001-$2,500, 10% have debt between $2,5001-$7,500 and 2% have debt of over $10,000.
Comparatively, the generation with the least debt — Gen Zers (ages 18 to 26) — owes less than half as much, with an average balance of $21,665.
Does Gen Z have credit card debt?
Americans rely much more on their credit cards these days, and Gen Z is no expectation. According to McKinsey data, Gen Zers (aged 18 to 25) currently have an average of $2,282 in credit card debt. But compared to the average American, Gen Z's debt doesn't look all that bad.
In fact, Gen Zers aged 18 to 26 saw their overall debt burden soar 179% between 2021 and 2023, according to a recent study by LendingTree. That was the biggest change of any generation during that period, topping increases of 88% for millennials and 26% for Gen X.
$5,000 in credit card debt can be quite costly in the long run. That's especially the case if you only make minimum payments each month. However, you don't have to accept decades of credit card debt.
Credit card debt in America by the numbers
In short, that amounts to an average balance of $5,733 per cardholder. Eye-watering, to say the least–and the fact that many of us carry no balances makes this statistical average even more alarming.
The news: Gen Z's credit card debt is growing faster than that of any other generation, according to data from Credit Karma.
$20,000 is a lot of credit card debt and it sounds like you're having trouble making progress,” says Rossman.
“Shark Tank” investor Kevin O'Leary has said the ideal age to be debt-free is 45, especially if you want to retire by age 60. Being debt-free — including paying off your mortgage — by your mid-40s puts you on the early path toward success, O'Leary argued.
Average credit card debt by state
Here's a look at the states with the highest and lowest average American credit card debt, according to the most recent data from Experian. Alaska had the highest credit card debt at $7,338, and Indiana had the lowest with an average credit card balance of $5,017.
Prime (credit scores of 660-719) Super-prime (credit scores of 720 or above)
Americans — particularly Millennials and those with lower incomes — are becoming increasingly overextended financially: Credit card and auto loan delinquencies have not only surpassed pre-pandemic levels, they're the highest they've been in more than a decade.
Is the average 22 year old in debt?
Here's a look at how much nonmortgage debt Americans have by age group, and the average non-mortgage per capita debt for each group: 18-29-year-olds: $69 billion total, $12,871 average. 30-39-year-olds: $1.17 trillion, $26,532 average.
Indeed, men carry more overall debt than women, including across most debt categories. But women carry more student loan debt and often have more credit cards. 1 We go a little more in-depth into this in the next section.
Living on credit cards can't last forever, because eventually you'll reach the end of your credit line. Consider it a stop-gap measure, not a permanent plan. “In a lot of cases, you won't know how long your emergency will last,” says Nitzsche. “It could be a few months, it could be a year.
Around 23% of Americans are debt free, according to the most recent data available from the Federal Reserve. That figure factors in every type of debt, from credit card balances and student loans to mortgages, car loans and more. The exact definition of debt free can vary, though, depending on whom you ask.
The average credit card debt held by Gen Z is $2,854, according to Q3 2022 data from the credit bureau Experian. This is the lowest average for any adult generation, which makes sense considering that people in Gen Z (ages 11-26) have had the least amount of time to rack up credit card debt.
