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Mapped: The Average Credit Card Debt in Every U.S. State (2024)

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6 days ago

November 28, 2024

Pallavi Rao

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Mapped: The Average Credit Card Debt in Every U.S. State (2024)

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.

This map visualizes the average credit card debt held by households in each U.S. state and ranks the states where residents pay off the debt the fastest and slowest.

Data is sourced from Bankrate (2024) who also used average monthly household income to calculate how long it takes to pay off balances.

ℹ️ Assumptions made for this analysis: 5% of monthly household income is used for card payments. Also, no new debt is accrued in this time period.

How Long it Takes to Pay off Credit Card Balances in Each State

Households in Alaska and Washington D.C. are carrying more than $7,000 in credit card debt, the highest across the country. However, with average annual household incomes of $109,000 and $149,000, residents in both states can pay off their debt in about 15–20 months.

In fact, glancing through the numbers below reveals a pattern.

Rank	State	Average Credit Card Debt	Average Annual Income	# of Months to Pay Off Debt*
1	Alaska	$7,316	$109,524	19
2	Washington D.C.**	$7,236	$148,872	14
3	Maryland	$6,787	$125,876	15
4	Nevada	$6,710	$98,422	20
5	Hawaii	$6,695	$120,969	16
6	New Jersey	$6,695	$134,191	14
7	Virginia	$6,647	$119,058	16
8	Texas	$6,620	$101,738	19
9	Connecticut	$6,615	$128,160	15
10	Georgia	$6,580	$99,863	19
11	California	$6,576	$131,504	14
12	Colorado	$6,574	$119,039	16
13	Florida	$6,550	$99,349	19
14	Washington	$6,470	$125,847	15
15	Arizona	$6,317	$101,316	18
16	Delaware	$6,314	$105,438	17
17	New York	$6,313	$119,130	15
18	Wyoming	$6,114	$90,018	20
19	Massachusetts	$6,077	$133,823	13
20	Illinois	$6,070	$106,728	16
21	Rhode Island	$6,021	$108,023	16
22	New Hampshire	$5,953	$119,452	14
23	Utah	$5,945	$114,044	15
24	Oregon	$5,929	$102,923	16
25	South Carolina	$5,894	$88,704	19
26	Oklahoma	$5,862	$82,741	21
27	North Carolina	$5,853	$94,353	18
28	Louisiana	$5,796	$79,175	22
29	Idaho	$5,753	$94,503	17
30	Montana	$5,728	$90,874	18
31	Pennsylvania	$5,709	$100,015	16
32	Tennessee	$5,708	$89,799	18
33	North Dakota	$5,618	$97,699	16
34	New Mexico	$5,586	$82,382	20
35	Kansas	$5,575	$93,221	17
36	Alabama	$5,571	$82,956	20
37	Minnesota	$5,551	$109,737	14
38	Missouri	$5,539	$88,586	18
39	Michigan	$5,503	$91,856	17
40	Vermont	$5,484	$97,261	16
41	Maine	$5,420	$93,555	17
42	Ohio	$5,405	$90,109	17
43	South Dakota	$5,375	$90,806	17
44	Nebraska	$5,370	$94,599	16
45	Arkansas	$5,366	$76,853	20
46	West Virginia	$5,333	$75,265	21
47	Mississippi	$5,332	$72,624	22
48	Indiana	$5,264	$88,805	17
49	Kentucky	$5,098	$82,614	18
50	Iowa	$5,063	$92,695	16
51	Wisconsin	$4,940	$94,085	15
N/A	U.S. Average	$6,140	$105,555	17

*Assuming no new debt is accrued. **Federal district.

Richer state households—Connecticut, California, Washington—have higher costs of living and are carrying higher credit card balances. But they also manage to pay them off quickly with their larger incomes.

On the other hand, households in poorer states have below-average debt but it take closer to two years for them to pay it off.

This highlights the unequal debt burden across America. While the people living on the coasts have higher costs, they’re compensated by their incomes. However the South’s lower costs are not as evenly compensated.

And of course, compound interest is not a game played in favor of the borrower. Carrying the debt for longer periods of time accrues additional interest. Bankrate’s analysis points out that when making only minimum payments, it would take more than 17 years to pay it off the national average debt: $6,140.

In case that seems like a ludicrous amount of time, here’s a good reminder that most credit card interest compounds daily and not monthly.