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Black Friday: The Holiday Surge in U.S. Consumer Debt and Spending

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Black Friday: The Holiday Surge in U.S. Consumer Debt and Spending

Black Friday

Visualizing the surge in U.S. consumer debt and spending

The Chart of the Week is a weekly Visual Capitalist feature on Fridays.

Next week, Black Friday and Cyber Monday will kick off the start to the U.S. holiday shopping season, during which consumers are expected to spend a total of $655.8 billion this year.

With the average bill coming in at $938.50 for holiday spending, where are people finding the extra cash?

We looked back at the last five years of Equifax data to see how consumer debt correlates to holiday purchases.

There’s Credit In Store

One way consumers take advantage of Black Friday deals is through the issuance of store credit. Specifically, Black Friday traditionally sees a noteworthy surge in signups to private label cards – the kind redeemed at stores like Macy’s.

Each year, roughly half a million Americans are signing up for new accounts on Black Friday:

Private label cards issued2012201320142015
Prior 10 days (Avg.)130,312153,605164,341162,006
Black Friday463,292485,512502,805491,873
Following 10 days (Avg.)167,144181,454182,320181,903

Furniture and department stores are among the biggest providers of this type of credit to consumers. Here are the five-year averages by industry for the months of November and December:

New store credit issued (Nov/Dec)$ millions
Furniture851
Department stores790
Jewelry451
Electronics365
Clothing241

Charge it, please

This bump in activity doesn’t stop with new signups for store credit. The average balances on store cards and credit cards both jump noticeably in the months following the holiday season:

MonthStore Card Balance (5-Year Average)Credit Card Balance (5-year Average)
August$291$1,717
September$293$1,720
October$296$1,709
November$298$1,707
December$313$1,742
January$320$1,756
February$308$1,710

Every year is different, but the data always follows the same trend.

Stocking up on Black Friday deals is not cheap, and extra dollars spent eventually make their way onto the credit card statement with the cost of interest added on.

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Visualizing All of the U.S. Currency in Circulation

This graphic illustrates the amount of U.S. currency in circulation globally, by denomination, based on data from the Federal Reserve.

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Visualizing All of the U.S. Currency in Circulation

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

Have you ever wondered how much U.S. currency is in circulation?

Every year, the U.S. Federal Reserve submits a print order for U.S. currency to the Treasury Department’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP). The BEP will then print billions of notes in various denominations, from $1 bills to $100 bills.

In this graphic, we’ve used the latest Federal Reserve data to visualize the approximate number of bills for each denomination globally, as of Dec. 31, 2022.

Breakdown of U.S. Currency in Circulation

The following table lists all of the data we used to create the visualization above. Note that value figures were rounded for simplicity.

Type of BillNumber of notes
in circulation (billions)
Value ($B)
$114.3$14B
$21.5$3B
$53.5$18B
$102.3$23B
$2011.5$230B
$502.5$125B
$10018.5$1,850B
$500-10,000*0.0004n/a

*$500-10,000 bills are listed as a range, and a total circulation of 0.0004 billion. Not included in graphic.

From these numbers, we can see that $100 bills are the most common bill in circulation, even ahead of $1 bills.

One reason for this is $100 bills have a longer lifespan than smaller denominations, due to people using $100 bills less often for transactions. Some businesses may also decline $100 bills as payment.

Based on 2018 estimates from the Federal Reserve, a $100 bill has a lifespan of over 20 years, which is significantly higher than $1 bills (7 years) and $5 bills (5 years).

If you’re interested in more visualizations on the U.S. dollar, consider this animated chart which shows how the dollar overtook the British pound as the world’s most prominent reserve currency.

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