8.6%
of families pay over 40% of income on debt — the highest share since 2010 (was 6.5% in 2022)
The Other Side of the Balance Sheet
Net worth gets the headlines, but debt decides how families actually live. Between 2022 and 2025, American balance sheets got richer — and household budgets got tighter. This is the debt story the 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances tells.
Source: Federal Reserve 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances (released Oct 9, 2026) · Page published October 2026
2025: richer, and more stretched
19.6%
were late on a loan payment in the past year — up from 12.2%, the worst reading since 2010
11.9%
of aggregate family income now goes to debt payments — up from 9.9% in 2022
77%
of families hold some form of debt — roughly unchanged from 2022
How can families be wealthier and more financially stressed at the same time? The Fed's economists point to the mix: assets grew (houses, stocks), but so did the cost of carrying debt — and some families saw incomes fall. Wealth you can't easily spend doesn't make the monthly payment. The leverage ratio (debt vs. assets) actually fell to 10.0%, while the payment-to-income ratio rose to 11.9%. The balance sheet improved; the budget didn't.
The monthly squeeze, 1989–2025
Debt payments as a share of family income — the aggregate across all families. Switch views to see who feels it most.
Source: Fed SCF historic tables, Table 18 (aggregate payment-to-income ratios). Every group jumped between 2022 and 2025; the 2010 peak marks the Great Recession's aftermath. The top income decile consistently pays the smallest share of its income on debt.
Stress signals, 2013–2025
Pick an indicator — each is the share of families flashing that particular warning light.
Source: Fed SCF 2025 bulletin, Table 5 (debt burdens and credit-market experiences). Bankruptcy and foreclosure cover the past five years; the rest cover the past year.
What Americans borrow for
Mostly houses — but education keeps climbing
Home purchase debt still dominates at 71.4 cents of every dollar owed, a share that has barely moved in 35 years. The quiet mover is education debt: 2.4% of all household debt in 1989, 6.2% in 2025 — nearly triple the share. Vehicle debt, meanwhile, has nearly halved as a share of the total (10.6% → 5.6%).
Debt ≠ distress
A mortgage at 3% and a payday loan at 300% both count as "debt" here. The stress section is the one that separates manageable borrowing from the kind that breaks budgets: 2.6% of families took a payday loan in the past year, up from 2.1%.
Source: Fed SCF historic tables, Table 16 (amount of debt distributed by purpose, 1989–2025).
Who carries what
Share of families holding each type of debt, by income group (2025). Mortgages rise with income; credit-card balances peak in the upper middle.
Source: Fed SCF historic tables, Table 13 (2025). "Credit card" means carrying a balance past the due date — 55.8% of families use cards for convenience only. Installment loans include auto, student, and other installment debt.
How this page is built
Burden chart. Aggregate debt-payment-to-income ratios from the Fed's SCF historic tables (Table 18), 1989–2025. "Aggregate" means total debt payments divided by total income — it weights high earners more than a median would. The bulletin also publishes medians for debtors (15.4% in 2025).
Stress signals. Directly from the 2025 bulletin's Table 5, which tracks the same questions across the 2013–2025 surveys. "Late on payments" covers families that held debt at interview and were behind on any loan in the preceding year.
Debt purpose. The Fed's Table 16 distributes the total amount of household debt by purpose — this is dollars, not families. Purpose shares are stable because mortgages dominate the dollar total.
Who carries what. Table 13 gives the share of families in each income group holding each debt type in 2025. Income groups are percentiles of usual income.
Full sourcing: methodology · Fed bulletin (PDF) · SCF data hub · Companion page: The Shape of American Wealth