Credit Score Statistics (2026)

The average American's credit is in solid shape, but slipping for the first time in over a decade. The average FICO score was 715 in 2025, down 2 points from a peak of 717, the first annual decline since 2013 (see the chart below).

That still caps a long climb: the national average rose from 688 in 2005 to a record 717 in 2024, reflecting years of low unemployment and improving credit behavior before the 2025 dip.

The 2025 decline was not random. FICO and Experian attribute it to three converging pressures: rising credit card utilization, a spike in missed payments, and the resumption of student-loan delinquency reporting after the pandemic pause.

The share of people with a new serious (90+ day) delinquency rose to nearly 8% by 2024, and delinquencies climbed across cards, autos, and personal loans, all of which pull the national average down.

Most Americans have good credit. About 70% score 670 or higher ("good" or better), and 22.8% are "exceptional" at 800-850 (see the chart and table below).

At the other end, 14.7% fall in the "poor" band (300-579), up from 12.1% two years earlier, a small but telling sign of the 2025 deterioration. The largest single group, 27.5%, sits in the "very good" 740-799 range.

Credit scores climb steadily over a lifetime. Gen Z averages 678, millennials 689, Gen X 709, and Baby Boomers 747, with the Silent Generation highest at 760 (see the chart and table below).

The gradient reflects the score's mechanics: older consumers have longer credit histories, lower utilization, and more time to recover from early mistakes. Younger scores also dipped most in 2025 (Gen Z -3 points), as newer borrowers felt the delinquency uptick first.

Geography matters. Minnesota has the highest average score (741), followed by Vermont and Wisconsin, while Mississippi (677), Louisiana, and Alabama sit at the bottom (see the table below).

The roughly 60-point spread between the top and bottom states largely tracks income, education, and cost-of-living differences, the upper-Midwest and New England consistently lead, the Deep South consistently trails.

Higher earners have higher scores, but not because income is scored directly, it isn't. Median scores run from about 658 for low-income families to 774 for high-income families, a 116-point spread (see the table below).

Income doesn't appear on your credit file. The correlation is indirect: higher incomes make it easier to pay on time and keep balances low relative to limits, which are the things that actually move a score.

A FICO score is built from five factors, and two of them dominate. Payment history is 35% and amounts owed (utilization) is 30%, together nearly two-thirds of the score (see the table below).

The rest is length of credit history (15%), new credit (10%), and credit mix (10%). The practical takeaway: paying on time and keeping balances low relative to limits matter far more than anything else you can do.

Credit utilization, the share of your available credit you're using, is the most actionable lever. The national average is 29.1%, but it varies enormously by score: people with poor credit use 79% of their limits on average, versus just 7% for those with exceptional scores (see the table below).

Because utilization updates monthly and has no memory, unlike payment history, it's the fastest way to move a score. Paying a card down before the statement closes can lift a score within a cycle.

A meaningful minority struggle with credit. About 29.6% of consumers had a subprime score as of late 2025, and roughly 13% score below 600.

Definitions vary, Experian treats roughly 580-669 or below 600 as subprime, while the CFPB uses below 620, so the exact share depends on the cutoff. Either way, nearly a third of consumers face higher borrowing costs because of their score.

There are two main scoring systems, and they aren't interchangeable. FICO (used in most lending decisions) and VantageScore (common in free credit-monitoring apps) both run on a 300-850 scale but weight factors differently.

The average VantageScore 3.0 was about 702, a bit below the average FICO. If your free-app score doesn't match what a lender sees, this is usually why, so know which model you're looking at.

The score trends are downstream of payment behavior, which worsened in 2025. Serious (90+ day) delinquencies rose to 1.02% of accounts, up from 0.80%, and the strain was worst in autos (3.78% delinquent) and personal loans (3.76%).

These missed payments are the mechanism behind the falling average score: payment history is the single biggest FICO factor, so a delinquency uptick shows up quickly in the national number.

The highest-leverage moves follow directly from the factor weights. Pay every bill on time, this is 35% of the score and the fastest way to do damage if missed. Keep utilization low, ideally under 30% and under 10% for top scores, since it's 30% of the score and updates monthly.

Beyond that: keep old accounts open to lengthen your history, avoid opening many new accounts at once, and maintain a mix of credit types over time. There's no trick, the score simply rewards consistent, low-risk behavior.