The average amount of non-mortgage debt held by consumers in the United States has been falling steadily during the past years, amounting to ****** U.S. dollars in 2023. While respondents had ****** U.S. dollars of debt in 2018, that volume decreased to ****** U.S. dollars in 2019, which constituted the largest year-over-year decrease.What age groups are more indebted in the U.S.?The age group with the highest level of consumer debt in the U.S. was belonging to the Generation X with approximately ******* U.S. dollars of debt in 2022. The next generations with high consumer debt levels were baby boomers and millennials, whose debt levels were similar. In comparison, credit card debt is more equally distributed across all ages. There is an exception among people under 35 years old, who are significantly less burdened with credit card debt. However, most consumers expect to get rid of their debt in the short term. College expenses as a source of debtEducational expenses were not among the leading sources of debt among consumers in the U.S. in 2022. Instead, they made up about ** percent of the total. However, around ** percent of undergraduates from lower-income families had student loans, while over a fifth of undergraduates from higher-income families had student loans. Independently of how they cover these expenses, the confidence of students and parents about being able to pay these college costs was high in most cases.

In the third quarter of 2022, households in the United States had, on average, ****** U.S. dollars of mortgage debt. That was the biggest component of their personal debt burden. The value per capita of car and student loans was much lower, but still contributed more to the level of household indebtedness than credit cards or HE revolving.

In the third quarter of 2024, household debt in the United States amounted to over 71.66 percent of its GDP. It can be generally observed that U.S. households are more indebted by the end of the year than in any other quarter. The debt of households peaked in the last quarter of 2020, reaching the highest value since 2013. Debt to GDP ratio As it can be observed here, the household debt to GDP ratio decreased overall in the recent years. The steady growth of the gross domestic product in the United States could be a factor explaining this tendency. If the volume of debt grows at a slower pace than the GDP, the debt to GDP ratio would decrease. In addition to that, the overall value of mortgage debt in the U.S., which is the most significant component of the household debt, decreased from 2012 to the third quarter of 2014, but it has rebounded since then. Public debt in the U.S. Public debt in the United States, which is the amount of money borrowed by the government to finance budget deficits, has been increasing almost every single year. Not only that, but according to that forecast it is also expected to keep increasing during the coming years. The major holders of American government debt, as of December 2023, were Federal Reserve and government accounts and foreign and international holders. The ratio of national debt to GDP of the United States was higher than that of other major economies, but lower than that of Japan. Some of the lowest debt to GDP ratios were observed in Hong Kong SAR, Kuwait, and Turkmenistan.

The average consumer debt balance in the United States has peaked in 2024 at roughly ******* U.S. dollars. However, average consumer debt had decreased between 2010 and 2013, when it reached approximately ****** U.S. dollars. Here, consumer debt refers to student and car loans, credit cards, personal loans, mortgages, and other types of debt.

Key information about Australia Household Debt: % of GDP

• Australia household debt accounted for 116.6 % of the country's Nominal GDP in Mar 2023, compared with the ratio of 118.0 % in the previous quarter.
• Australia household debt to GDP ratio is updated quarterly, available from Jun 1988 to Mar 2023.
• The data reached an all-time high of 129.4 % in Sep 2016 and a record low of 44.2 % in Sep 1988.

CEIC calculates quarterly Household Debt as % of Nominal GDP from quarterly Household Debt and quarterly Nominal GDP. The Australian Bureau of Statistics provides Household Debt in local currency and Nominal GDP in local currency.


Related information about Australia Household Debt: % of GDP

• In the latest reports, Australia Household Debt reached 1,957.6 USD bn in Mar 2023.
• Money Supply M2 in Australia increased 4.1 % YoY in Jun 2023.
• Australia Foreign Exchange Reserves was measured at 37.1 USD bn in Jun 2023.
• The Foreign Exchange Reserves equaled 1.5 Months of Import in May 2023.
• Australia Domestic Credit reached 3,627.0 USD bn in May 2023, representing an increased of 1.9 % YoY.
• The country's Non Performing Loans Ratio stood at 0.8 % in Mar 2023, compared with the ratio of 0.8 % in the previous quarter.

Private Debt to GDP in the United States decreased to 142 percent in 2024 from 147.50 percent in 2023. United States Private Debt to GDP - values, historical data, forecasts and news - updated on August of 2025.

The majority of customer complaints regarding debt collection in the United States in 2022 concerned agencies trying to collect debt that the consumer did not owe. Written notifications about debt followed, with over 20 percent of respondents having complaints about it that year.

Graph and download economic data for Households; Net Worth, Level (BOGZ1FL192090005Q) from Q4 1987 to Q1 2025 about net worth, Net, households, and USA.

Credit card debt in the United States has been growing at a fast pace between 2021 and 2025. In the fourth quarter of 2024, the overall amount of credit card debt reached its highest value throughout the timeline considered here. COVID-19 had a big impact on the indebtedness of Americans, as credit card debt decreased from *** billion U.S. dollars in the last quarter of 2019 to *** billion U.S. dollars in the first quarter of 2021. What portion of Americans use credit cards? A substantial portion of Americans had at least one credit card in 2025. That year, the penetration rate of credit cards in the United States was ** percent. This number increased by nearly seven percentage points since 2014. The primary factors behind the high utilization of credit cards in the United States are a prevalent culture of convenience, a wide range of reward schemes, and consumer preferences for postponed payments. Which companies dominate the credit card issuing market? In 2024, the leading credit card issuers in the U.S. by volume were JPMorgan Chase & Co. and American Express. Both firms recorded transactions worth over one trillion U.S. dollars that year. Citi and Capital One were the next banks in that ranking, with the transactions made with their credit cards amounting to over half a trillion U.S. dollars that year. Those industry giants, along with other prominent brand names in the industry such as Bank of America, Synchrony Financial, Wells Fargo, and others, dominate the credit card market. Due to their extensive customer base, appealing rewards, and competitive offerings, they have gained a significant market share, making them the preferred choice for consumers.

The Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) is normally a triennial cross-sectional survey of U.S. families. The survey data include information on families' balance sheets, pensions, income, and demographic characteristics.

In 2022, household debt in Japan accounted for **** percent of the gross domestic product (GDP). The share increased from ** percent in the previous year.

 Household debt 

Total household financial liabilities rose to around ***** trillion Japanese yen in the second quarter of 2023, most of which comprised housing loans. A distribution of financial liabilities held by multi-person households revealed that loans taken out for the purchase of homes and land were the primary reason for an increase in the average amount of liabilities per household in recent years. The average amount of financial liabilities per multi-person household decreased proportionally with increasing age: household debt reached the highest levels among households with a household head aged below 40 years, while households headed by over 70-year-olds reported the lowest amount of outstanding debt.

 Regional disparities 

A closer look at the geographical distribution of household debt revealed large disparities across different regions in the country: at **** million yen, financial liabilities per multi-person household were highest in the Kanto region, which is home to Japan’s capital Tokyo where a large proportion of the Japanese workforce is concentrated. At the same time, the average household debt in Okinawa, the southernmost region of Japan, was **** million yen.

The value of the debt per adult in Europe in 2022 varied a lot from country to country. While Swiss adults had on average over ******* U.S. dollars of debt in 2022, adults from Azerbaijan had a debt of *** dollars. Meanwhile, the average volume of debt in Europe that year was almost ****** U.S. dollars per adult. The household debt to disposable income ratio in Europe follows a similarly varied distribution. As varied as the volume of debts in Europe are, the most common forms of debt are still very similar and they tend to include: credit cards, medical debt, student loans, overdrafts, mortgages, automobile financing and personal loans.

According to a survey conducted in 2022, ** percent of adults said that vocational training or other professional certification programs were definitely worth the price, more than other higher education institutions. Undergraduate education at private universities, for-profit, was perceived by adults as the least likely to be worth the price out of the other types. The student debt crisis In the United States, the amount of outstanding student loan debt has skyrocketed in the last few years, ultimately outpacing all other forms of household debt. As of the first quarter of 2024, Americans owed over **** trillion U.S. dollars in student loans, likely influenced by increasing college tuition prices at a time of rising living costs and little wage growth. By the 2020/21 academic year, the average cost of attending a four-year postsecondary institution in the U.S. reached over ****** U.S. dollars, a price which may triple for Americans attending private and non-profit schools. In that same year, the average student debt for a bachelor's degree in totaled almost ****** U.S. dollars, depicting an increase in the amount of Americans taking on larger debts to attend higher education - an agreement which ultimately leads to an even greater outstanding balance from accrued interest. Despite a three-and-a-half-year pause on monthly student loan payments during the COVID-19 pandemic which aimed to alleviate the economic burden faced by over ** million borrowers, most Americans still struggle to afford these payments. Cutting out college costs As the cost of college - and the resulting student debt - remains on the rise in the U.S., more and more university graduates have been found to be struggling financially, often having difficulty affording bills and other living expenses. Such financial hardships have also caused significant disruption to the lives of younger Americans, with a 2022 survey showing that around a ******* of Gen Z were unable to save for retirement or emergencies and had to delay homeownership and having children due to their student debt. Consequently, debates have arisen over whether the benefits of higher education still exceed the costs in the U.S., with many beginning to doubt that getting a college degree is worth the financial risk. While tuition costs remain at an all-time high, it is probable that financing a college degree may be detrimental for those Americans who have fewer resources and are unable to fund higher education without going into a significant amount of debt.

In 2023, the gross federal debt in the United States amounted to around ****** U.S. dollars per capita. This is a moderate increase from the previous year, when the per capita national debt amounted to about ****** U.S. dollars. The total debt accrued by the U.S. annually can be accessed here. Federal debt of the United States The level of national debt held by the United States government has risen sharply in the years following the Great Recession. Federal debt is the amount of debt the federal government owes to creditors who hold assets in the form of debt securities. As with individuals and consumers, there is a common consensus among economists that holding debt is not necessarily problematic for government so long as the public debt is held at a sustainable level. Although there is no agreed upon ratio of debt to gross domestic product, the increasing debt held by the Federal Reserve has become a major part of the political discourse in the United States. Politics and the national debt In recent years, debate over the debt ceiling has been of concern to domestic politicians, the owners of federal debt, and global economy as a whole. The debt ceiling is a legislated maximum amount that national debt can reach intended to impose a degree of fiscal prudence on incumbent governments. However, as national debt has grown the debt ceiling has been reached, thus forcing legislative action by Congress. In both 2011 and 2013, new legislation was passed by Congress allowing the debt ceiling to be raised. The Budget Control Act of 2011 and the No Budget, No Pay Act of 2013 successively allowed the government to avoid defaulting on national debt and therefore avert a potential economic crisis.

In 2022, Salt Lake City, Utah, had the least affordable housing among the top ten metros with the highest share of Gen Z home buyers in the United States. The average requested mortgage loan amount by Gen Zers was ******* U.S. dollars. Between ** and ** percent of mortgage applications in the metros included in this statistic came from Gen Z home buyers. While house prices do in fact influence Gen Zers' choice, Salt Lake City, UT, had both the largest share of Gen Z mortgage requests and the highest loan amount.

Mortgage interest rates worldwide varied greatly in June 2025, from less than ******percent in many European countries to as high as ***percent in Turkey. The average mortgage rate in a country depends on the central bank's base lending rate and macroeconomic indicators such as inflation and forecast economic growth. Since 2022, inflationary pressures have led to rapid increases in mortgage interest rates. Which are the leading mortgage markets? An easy way to estimate the importance of the mortgage sector in each country is by comparing household debt depth, or the ratio of the debt held by households compared to the county's GDP. In 2024, Switzerland, Australia, and Canada had some of the highest household debt to GDP ratios worldwide. While this indicator shows the size of the sector relative to the country’s economy, the value of mortgages outstanding allows to compare the market size in different countries. In Europe, for instance, the United Kingdom, Germany, and France were the largest mortgage markets by outstanding mortgage lending. Mortgage lending trends in the U.S. In the United States, new mortgage lending soared in 2021. This was largely due to the growth of new refinance loans that allow homeowners to renegotiate their mortgage terms and replace their existing loan with a more favorable one. Following the rise in interest rates, the mortgage market cooled, and refinance loans declined.

Mortgage interest rates worldwide varied greatly in 2024, from less than four percent in many European countries, to as high as 44 percent in Turkey. The average mortgage rate in a country depends on the central bank's base lending rate and macroeconomic indicators such as inflation and forecast economic growth. Since 2022, inflationary pressures have led to rapid increase in mortgage interest rates. Which are the leading mortgage markets? An easy way to estimate the importance of the mortgage sector in each country is by comparing household debt depth, or the ratio of the debt held by households compared to the county's GDP. In 2023, Switzerland, Australia, and Canada had some of the highest household debt to GDP ratios worldwide. While this indicator shows the size of the sector relative to the country’s economy, the value of mortgages outstanding allows to compare the market size in different countries. In Europe, for instance, the United Kingdom, Germany, and France were the largest mortgage markets by outstanding mortgage lending. Mortgage lending trends in the U.S. In the United States, new mortgage lending soared in 2021. This was largely due to the growth of new refinance loans that allow homeowners to renegotiate their mortgage terms and replace their existing loan with a more favorable one. Following the rise in interest rates, the mortgage market cooled, and refinance loans declined.

In the United States, interest rates for all mortgage types started to increase in 2021. This was due to the Federal Reserve introducing a series of hikes in the federal funds rate to contain the rising inflation. In the fourth quarter of 2024, the 30-year fixed rate rose slightly, to **** percent. Despite the increase, the rate remained below the peak of **** percent in the same quarter a year ago. Why have U.S. home sales decreased? Cheaper mortgages normally encourage consumers to buy homes, while higher borrowing costs have the opposite effect. As interest rates increased in 2022, the number of existing homes sold plummeted. Soaring house prices over the past 10 years have further affected housing affordability. Between 2013 and 2023, the median price of an existing single-family home risen by about ** percent. On the other hand, the median weekly earnings have risen much slower. Comparing mortgage terms and rates Between 2008 and 2023, the average rate on a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage in the United States stood between **** and **** percent. Over the same period, a 30-year mortgage term averaged a fixed-rate of between **** and **** percent. Rates on 15-year loan terms are lower to encourage a quicker repayment, which helps to improve a homeowner’s equity.

Roughly one out of three of all Visa credit cards issued worldwide were found within the United States, as of the first quarter of 2025. The value inside the U.S. has remained constant over the past few years. In the third quarter of 2016, the number of international cards increased by over 25 percent. Why does the number of cards matter? The number of cards gives a crude idea of market saturation. For example, the number of cards in the United States is close to the total population, meaning that there is one VISA credit card for every man, woman, and child in that country. While many have more than one credit card and small children probably will not use such payment methods, this still gives a rough idea that the U.S. market may not hold much growth potential. International credit card market The world market has billions more consumers than the United States, but the number of Visa cards in circulation does not reflect this. The main reason is that other credit companies, such as MasterCard, are present in these markets. Moreover, lower rates of credit card ownership can be observed in many countries. Fintech companies, working on innovative ways of providing credit to consumers, should also be considered.

In Europe, the variation in average amounts of financial wealth per adult varied considerably as of 2022, from approximately ******* U.S. dollars in Switzerland to roughly ***** U.S. dollars in Azerbaijan. In Europe, the overall average financial wealth per adult as of 2022 was ****** U.S. dollars. In terms of private wealth, Europe held the second highest value in the world, after North America. What is financial wealth? Financial wealth, also known as financial assets or liquid assets can include wealth that an individual has in the forms of cash, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and bank deposits. In addition to financial wealth, wealth can also be measured in other assets, called non-financial wealth. This includes physical assets, such as real estate, land, vehicles, jewelry, and art, just to name a few. Where do most wealthy individuals live? Individuals with a net worth over *********** U.S. dollars are called high-net worth individuals (HNWI). The United States was the home country to the highest number of HNWIs in 2021. China followed, although their number of HNWIs did not even reach ********* of the number in the United States. In Europe, Switzerland is the country with the highest average financial wealth per adult, but with its small population size, the number of HNWIs does not come near the numbers in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Italy – the European countries with the highest number of HNWIs. Considering Switzerland’s small population size, however, it is the country in the world with the highest proportion of millionaires.