The above chart shows a historical view of total U.S. consumer credit per household. It also breaks out the data for revolving and non-revolving credit. In March 2009, U.S. per household consumer credit was $22,857. This was off of the record of $23,140 hit in July 2008.
The purpose of this chart is not to imply that every household has this much consumer debt. The purpose is to help provide some perspective as to how much consumer debt is outstanding. When we see numbes like $2.5 trillion dollars of consumer credit it is difficult to understand exactly what it means. I find that seeing this type of data on a per capita or per household basis helps me understand the magnitude. Below is a chart that shows per capita U.S. consumer credit - just another perspecitive.
Data source:
U.S. Federal Reserve
U.S. Census Bureau
Note: Does not include mortgage debt.
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