The average consumer debt balance in the United States has peaked in 2023 at roughly 104,200 U.S. dollars. However, average consumer debt had decreased between 2010 and 2013, when it reached approximately 85,500 U.S. dollars. Here, consumer debt refers to student and car loans, credit cards, personal loans, mortgages, and other types 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 21,800 U.S. dollars in 2023. While respondents had 38,000 U.S. dollars of debt in 2018, that volume decreased to 29,803 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 154,700 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 debt Educational expenses were not among the leading sources of debt among consumers in the U.S. in 2022. Instead, they made up about ten percent of the total. However, around 39 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.

The total average debt of Baby Boomers in the United States amounted to nearly 94,880 U.S. dollars in 2023. Debt balances, however, varied greatly according to the generation. The Generation X held the highest debt on average (157,560 U.S. dollars), while generation Z held the lowest average debt (nearly 29,820 U.S. dollars).

The generation X was the group of people with the highest average credit card balance in the United States in 2023. That year, the average credit card debt of the generation Z amounted to approximately 3,260 U.S. dollars. People in the silent generation had a credit card balance of roughly 3,410 U.S. dollars.

In 2023, 968 billion U.S. dollars worth of student loans were in forebearance in the United States. This is due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, where the government paused repayment of student loans and froze the accumulation of interest. This is compared to 112 billion U.S. dollars worth of student loans that were in default. As of the fourth quarter of 2022, outstanding student loan debt in the U.S. was valued at approximately 1.76 trillion U.S. dollars.

Key information about Romania Household Debt: % of GDP

• Romania household debt accounted for 15.4 % of the country's Nominal GDP in Sep 2024, compared with the ratio of 15.3 % in the previous quarter.
• Romania household debt to GDP ratio is updated quarterly, available from Mar 2007 to Sep 2024.
• The data reached an all-time high of 26.5 % in Jun 2010 and a record low of 15.3 % in Sep 2023.

CEIC calculates quarterly Household Debt as % of Nominal GDP from quarterly Household Debt and quarterly Nominal GDP. The National Bank of Romania provides Household Debt in local currency. The National Institute of Statistics provides Nominal GDP in local currency.


Related information about Romania Household Debt: % of GDP

• In the latest reports, Romania Household Debt reached 59.7 USD bn in Sep 2024.
• Money Supply M2 in Romania increased 10.3 % YoY in Oct 2024.
• Romania Foreign Exchange Reserves was measured at 60.8 USD bn in Dec 2024.
• The Foreign Exchange Reserves equaled 5.1 Months of Import in Nov 2024.
• Romania Domestic Credit reached 140.8 USD bn in Oct 2024, representing an increased of 13.8 % YoY.
• The country's Non Performing Loans Ratio stood at 2.5 % in Oct 2024, compared with the ratio of 2.5 % in the previous month.

In the first quarter of 2024, household debt in the United States amounted to over 71 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 2022, 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.

In the third quarter of 2022, households in the United States had, on average, 41,400 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 academic year of 2022/2023, 27.2 billion U.S. dollars was offered to students in the form of Federal Pell Grants. Altogether, 177 billion U.S. dollars worth of student aid were provided across the country.

This statistic presents the average credit card debt of Americans in 2017, by income. In that year, the credit card debt of Americans who earned more than 160 thousand U.S. dollars amounted to 11,200 U.S. dollars.

Denmark, the Netherlands, and Norway were among the European countries with most indebted households in 2023 and 2024. The debt of Dutch households amounted to 200 percent their disposable income in , as they had a ratio of over 180 percent in the second quarter of 2024. Meanwhile, Norwegian households' debt represented 233 percent of their income. However, households in most countries were less indebted, with that ratio amounting to 97 percent in the Euro area. Less indebtedness in Western and Northern Europe There were several European countries where household's debts outweighed their disposable income. Most of those countries were North or West European. However, the indebtedness ratio in Denmark has been decreasing during the past decade. As the debt of Danish households represented nearly 273 percent in the last quarter of 2014, which has fallen very significantly by 2024. Other countries with indebted households have been following similar trends. The households' debt-to-income ratio in the Netherlands has also fallen from over 275 percent in 2013 to 200 percent in 2024. Debt per adult in Europe In Europe, the value of debt per adult varies considerably from an average of around 10,000 U.S. dollars in Europe to a much higher level in certain countries such as Switzerland. Debts can be formed in a number of ways. The most common forms of debt include credit cards, medical debt, student loans, overdrafts, mortgages, automobile financing and personal loans.

In the financial year 2024, India's household debt reached around 671 billion U.S. dollars, an increase from previous year's figures. India's household debt has witnessed an upward trend in the last decade. Household debt includes consumer durables, housing and other personal loans.

In early 2024, Texas was one of the U.S. states with the highest debt balances from car loans. The car loan debt balance per capita in the United States as a whole was 5,6500 U.S. dollars. That figure is the result of dividing the total debt balance for that type of loan by the number of people living in the U.S., even those who do not have any car loan debt at all. That means that this figure is not representative of the amount of debt that an individual with a car loan has. In fact, the average car loan debt of people with some debt of that type in the U.S. is significantly higher.

In 2023, the credit market debt of households in the United States amounted to nearly 20 trillion U.S. dollars. Those figures measure the liability level of the credit market instruments of and nonprofit organizations, which, overall, have increased considerably during the past decade.

In the first quarter of 2024, the household debt-to-income ratio in the United States differed significantly within the country. The highest household debt-to-income ratio was recorded in Hawaii at 2.2, and the lowest in the District of Columbia at 0.52 percent, respectively. A ratio of two means that the household debt in that state was twice larger than their income, while a ratio of less than one reflects a volume of debt that is smaller than the income of those households.

Attitudes towards savings and debt differ greatly among countries worldwide. While the household debt in Denmark represented a 255 percent of their disposable income in 2021, those figures amounted to 26 percent in Mexico. Household debt represented a 148 percent of disposable income in the UK and 101 percent in the U.S..

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 151,600 U.S. dollars of debt in 2022, adults from Azerbaijan had a debt of 540 dollars. Meanwhile, the average volume of debt in Europe that year was almost 25,000 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.

In 2022, around 43 percent of Americans said that they expected to be in debt for another one to five years, whereas 12 percent expected to remain in debt for the rest of their lives. There is also an important share of respondents who did not know how long they would continue to pay their debt. The average amount of personal debt held in the U.S. has been decreasing since 2018.

This statistic displays the average amount of unpaid U.S. consumer debts that have gone into collection as of 2014, by creditor. During that year, medical debts among U.S. consumers averaged 579 U.S. dollars. Collections tradelines can negatively affect a consumer's credit score.

Unpaid U.S. consumer debts gone into collection

Among unpaid U.S. consumer debts that have gone into collection, automotive creditors and credit union creditors have accumulated some of the highest debts, averaging 5,587 U.S. dollars and 3,174 U.S. dollars, respectively. However, both of these debts only account for 0.1 percent of the collection tradelines of unpaid consumer debts in the country. Debts related to medical or health care accounted for over 52 percent of collection tradelines. About 30 percent of non-elderly adults in the country who had trouble paying medical bills were uninsured. However, many people covered by health insurance still have troubles paying for their medical bills. Medical debts can also arise when individuals have difficulty paying for their health insurance.

Complaints about medical debt collections are often due to debt that did not belong to the consumer and debt that was already paid, totaling 23 percent and 20 percent, respectively, which are the leading complaints among U.S. consumers. Total outstanding consumer credit in the United States has more than doubled from 1,287.6 billion U.S. dollars in 1997 to over three trillion U.S. dollars in 2013. Debt can lead to difficulties affording housing or other basic necessities, barriers to health care, and even bankruptcy.

In 2023, the gross federal debt in the United States amounted to around 93,500 U.S. dollars per capita. This is a moderate increase from the previous year, when the per capita national debt amounted to about 92,528 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.