Credit Union Statistics (2026)

US credit unions are big, member-owned, and still growing. As of December 31, 2025 there were 4,287 federally insured credit unions serving 144.7 million members, holding $2.43 trillion in assets and $2.07 trillion in shares and deposits (see the table below).

Unlike banks, credit unions are not-for-profit cooperatives owned by the people who use them. Earnings flow back to members as better rates and lower fees rather than to outside shareholders, which shapes almost every statistic on this page.

There were 4,287 federally insured credit unions at the end of 2025, split between 2,686 federally chartered institutions (regulated directly by the NCUA) and 1,601 federally insured, state-chartered credit unions. That is down from 4,455 a year earlier, a net loss of 168.

Roughly 56% of credit unions (2,390) carry a low-income designation, and 739 are considered complex, meaning they hold more than $500 million in assets. The count keeps shrinking even as the system as a whole grows larger.

The number of credit unions has been falling for more than 50 years, almost entirely through mergers rather than failures. The count peaked near 23,900 in 1969, fell to about 7,339 by 2010, and has since dropped to 4,287 (see the chart and history below).

The NCUA describes the year-over-year decline as consistent with long-running industry consolidation trends. Small credit unions merge into larger ones seeking scale to cover technology and compliance costs, so members are served by fewer but far bigger institutions.

Even as the number of credit unions falls, membership rises. Credit unions added 2.4 million members in 2025 to reach 144.7 million, up from roughly 100 million in 2015 and about 130 million in 2021 (see the chart below).

That works out to roughly 4 in 10 Americans holding a credit union account. Industry groups put the broad reach even higher, citing about 146 million Americans served when non-federally-insured cooperatives are included (America's Credit Unions estimate, flagged as an industry figure).

Total assets at federally insured credit unions rose $126 billion, or 5.4%, over 2025 to $2.43 trillion. Cash climbed 10.1% to $198.4 billion and investments rose 5.2% to $401.6 billion, while loans made up the bulk of the balance sheet at $1.72 trillion.

Asset growth outpaced the roughly 5% pace of the prior year, helped by rebounding deposits and steady mortgage lending. Still, the entire credit union system holds less than a tenth of the assets of the US banking industry, as the comparison below shows.

Credit unions are heavily a consumer-lending business. Total loans rose 4.6% to $1.72 trillion in 2025, led by mortgages: 1-to-4 family residential loans jumped 7.4% to $804.1 billion, the single largest category (see the table below).

Auto lending, historically a credit union stronghold, dipped 0.3% to $480.1 billion as new-auto balances fell 2.3%. Credit cards grew 3.1% to $87.8 billion and commercial loans surged 10.9% to $192.9 billion. The average outstanding loan balance was $19,397, up 5.3%.

At credit unions, deposits are called shares because each account represents partial ownership. Total shares and deposits grew 5.5% to $2.07 trillion in 2025, with insured shares and deposits at $1.86 trillion (see the table below).

The mix shifted toward higher-yielding accounts: share certificates (CDs) rose 6.5% and money market balances jumped 8.6%, while low-rate regular shares grew just 2.6%. The loan-to-share ratio eased to 83.2% from 84.0%, meaning deposits grew a touch faster than loans.

By count, credit unions and banks are nearly even: 4,287 credit unions versus 4,336 FDIC-insured banks at the end of 2025. By size, it is not close: banks hold about $25.3 trillion in assets, more than ten times the credit union system's $2.43 trillion (see the table below).

The structural difference explains the rest. Banks are for-profit and shareholder-owned, posting $295.6 billion in 2025 net income at roughly a 1.2% return on assets. Credit unions returned a 0.79% ROA and $18.8 billion, by design, passing more value back to members through rates.

Because they answer to members rather than shareholders, credit unions typically pay more on savings. In the NCUA's late-2025 survey, the average 1-year CD paid 2.95% at credit unions versus 2.29% at banks, and the 5-year CD paid 2.83% versus 2.11% (see the table below).

The edge is not universal. Banks actually paid slightly more on plain regular savings (0.32% vs 0.19%) and interest checking (0.20% vs 0.15%) in the same survey, so the deposit advantage shows up most clearly in certificates and money market accounts.

The bigger gap is on borrowing, where credit unions consistently undercut banks. A 60-month new-car loan averaged 5.44% at credit unions versus 7.41% at banks in late 2025, and a classic credit card ran 12.58% versus 15.27%, nearly three points cheaper (see the chart below).

Personal loans (10.64% vs 12.00%), used-auto loans (5.53% vs 7.73%), and home equity lines (7.13% vs 7.74%) followed the same pattern. On a typical $30,000 auto loan, the roughly two-point rate gap can save a borrower well over $1,000 in interest.

The credit union system is strongly capitalized. Aggregate net worth rose 7.3% to $274.0 billion, lifting the net worth ratio to 11.26% from 11.07%, far above the 7% threshold the NCUA considers well-capitalized.

Earnings surged in 2025. Net income climbed 31.5% to $18.8 billion as the net interest margin widened to $80.4 billion (3.39% of average assets) and interest expense fell 1.8%. Return on average assets improved to 0.79% from 0.63% a year earlier.

Loan performance softened modestly. The overall delinquency rate rose 5 basis points to 103 basis points (1.03% of loans) in 2025, while the net charge-off ratio actually improved 2 basis points to 78 basis points.

Stress was uneven by product: credit card delinquencies were elevated at 215 basis points, commercial-loan delinquencies rose 13 basis points to 98, and non-commercial real estate ticked up to 88. Auto-loan delinquency held roughly steady at 96 basis points. Provisions for loan losses were little changed at $14.4 billion.

The system is top-heavy. Navy Federal Credit Union, which serves the military community, holds roughly $190 billion in assets and 15.1 million members, up from 14.3 million a year earlier, making it larger than many mid-size banks (see the table below).

After Navy Federal come State Employees' Credit Union of North Carolina (about $55 billion), SchoolsFirst FCU (about $33 billion), PenFed (about $31 billion), and BECU (about $30 billion). Navy Federal alone accounts for roughly 8% of all credit union assets.

The numbers make a practical case: if you carry an auto loan, credit card balance, or personal loan, a credit union will often cut your rate by one to three points versus a bank, and pay you more on a CD. Membership is easy to get, and your deposits carry the same $250,000 federal insurance as a bank.

A credit union is a cash-management tool, not an investing account. Use it for savings, checking, and borrowing where the rate edge compounds, then keep long-term money invested for growth. Walnut helps you connect a brokerage and build thesis-driven baskets so your invested dollars work as hard as your banked ones.