The total average non-mortgage debt of Baby Boomers in the United States amounted to nearly 18,470 U.S. dollars in 2024. Debt balances, however, varied greatly according to the generation. The Generation X held the highest debt on average, while the silent generation held the lowest average debt.

Generation X was the group of people with the highest average credit card balance in the United States in the 3rd quarter of 2024. That year, the average credit card debt of generation Z amounted to approximately ***** U.S. dollars. People in the silent generation had a credit card balance of roughly ***** U.S. dollars.

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.

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.