Datastream
The State of Household Debt in America
The Briefing
- U.S. household debt stands at $14.56 trillion, and has doubled since 2003
- Student loan debt has expanded a colossal 550% in the same time frame
The State of Household Debt in America
American households are becoming increasingly indebted.
In 2003, total household debt was $7.23 trillion, but that figure has recently doubled to $14.56 trillion in 2020. With just under 130 million households in the country, this equates to an average of $118,000 of debt per household.
Here’s how the various forms of U.S. household debt compare.
| Type of Debt | 2003 (in trillions) | 2020 (in trillions) | % Growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mortgage | $4.94 | $10.04 | +103% |
| Home Equity Revolving | $0.24 | $0.35 | +45% |
| Auto Loan | $0.64 | $1.37 | +137% |
| Credit Card | $0.69 | $0.82 | +18% |
| Student Loan | $0.24 | $1.56 | +550% |
| Other | $0.48 | $0.42 | -12% |
| Total | $7.23 | $14.46 | 100% |
Mortgages: Steep Price to Pay for Home Ownership
Making up roughly 70% of all household debt, and growing $5.1 trillion since 2003, mortgage debt now stands at $10.04 trillion.
A fundamental driver of mortgage activity is interest rates. Given the two variables tend to have an inverse relationship with one another, interest rates have a big impact on the affordability of housing. As long as U.S. interest rates remain near 200-year lows, its likely mortgages will maintain at elevated levels.
Students Continue Struggling with Student Debt
The second-largest form of debt is student loans. Although not quite the size of mortgages in raw dollars, student debt is the fastest growing as a percentage, having shot up 550% from 2003 to 2020.
The topic of debt is highly discussed in today’s political and economic climate. That’s largely because debt has risen on all fronts to unprecedented levels. For example, the U.S. national debt has recently passed $27 trillion while corporate debt stands at $10.5 trillion.
Throw the aforementioned household debt into the mix and you have a $52 trillion debt pile. That’s a big bill to pay.
Where does this data come from?
Source: Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Notes: Data ranges from Q1 2004 to Q4 2020
Datastream
Charted: The Ukraine War Civilian Death Toll
Using data from the UN, this chart shows civilian death toll figures resulting from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Briefing
- In total, since the war began in February there have been over 7,031 Ukrainian civilian deaths
- Most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons, such as missiles and heavy artillery
Charted: The Ukraine War Civilian Death Toll
Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine has wrought suffering and death on a mass scale, with many Russian attacks targeted at civilians.
We’ve created this visual using data from the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to better understand how many civilians have died in Ukraine as a result of the war, as well as how many were injured and how many were children.
The Numbers
As of early December, it is reported that 7,031 people in Ukraine have died because of the war — 433 of them children. Another 11,327 have been injured, 827 of which are children. In total, this is over 18,000 people killed or injured.
The figures are difficult to verify due to differing reports coming out of both Russia and Ukraine. The UN OHCHR anticipates that the numbers could be even higher.
The State of the Conflict
The war began on February 24th, 2022 and less than a year in, millions of people have been displaced by the conflict, and thousands of civilians have been injured or killed.
According to the UN, most of the civilian deaths have been caused by wide-ranging explosives such as heavy artillery shelling, missiles, and air strikes, and have been concentrated in Donetsk and Luhansk and in other territory still held by Ukraine.
Additionally, new estimates from Kyiv report approximately 13,000 Ukrainian military or soldier deaths, which has yet to be confirmed by the army.
Where does this data come from?
Source: The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights monthly reports on civilian deaths in Ukraine.
Note: Data on deaths and injuries can vary wildly depending on the source.
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