Debt by Age Percentile Rank Calculator [USA]

Here's a calculator to rank your debt to specific age groups to see where you stand or where you project yourself to be in the future.

From Age:
To Age:
Debt : $


Debt Summary Statistics

Household Ranking:

47.2%
Debt Percentile Rank : Debt of $25,000 ranks at the 47.2 percentile for ages 18 to 100
Median Debt : $31,760
Mean Debt : $126,864
Debt 25th - 75th Percentile Ranges : $400 to $168,000

Re-calculate percentile for a different Age / Debt combination.
Continue scrolling to see distribution graphs and additional statistics.

Debt Percentiles

    50th Percentile (Median) : $31,760
    75th Percentile: $168,000
    95th Percentile: $481,500
    99th Percentile: $1,045,000

Debt Percentile Stats

  • To be in the top 1% for this age range, your household would need a debt of $1,045,000. This would include mortgages, credit cards, installment payments, and other loans.
  • To be in the top 5% for this age range, your household would need an debt of $481,500. This would include mortgages, credit cards, installment payments, and other loans.
  • Your debt of $25,000 for ages 18 to 100 ranks at the 47.2th percentile. Re-enter a different debt to find the percentile for that age / debt combination.

Debt Composition of Households like you


Comparisons of Net Worth, Assets, and Debt components of similar households versus median households.
  • Households like you ( weighted using 42.2th to 52.2th percentiles)
  • Versus Households at the Median (weighted using 45th to 55th percentiles)
Asset CategorySimilar HouseholdsHouseholds with Median Debt
Net Worth:$440,539$499,704
Total Assets:$466,144$531,464
    Financial Assets:$201,180$232,508
    Main House:$123,747$151,771
    Other Assets:$141,217$147,184
Total Debts:$25,605$31,760
    Main Mortgage:$4,177$8,475
    Other Mortgages:$165$278
    Lines of Credit:$101$118
    Credit Cards:$0$0
    Other Debts:$21,161$22,889

Comparisons of Income components of similar households versus median households.
Income CategorySimilar HouseholdsHouseholds with Median Debt
Total Income:$79,744$79,679
    Wage & Salary Income:$54,488$54,464
    Other Income:$25,256$25,215
The asset compositions are calculated using weighted averages of all the households with-in the specific percentiles. For example, only a portion of the households will own homes, but the asset composition value above for Main House will be averaged across all households still.

Demographics of Comparable Head of Households

Highest Education Level

Race

Labor Force Status

Marriage Status

Debt Percentiles For Ages 18 to 100

For reference, here is how much debt you would have to have to rank at certain percentiles for ages 18 to 100
PercentileDebt (in Dollars)
90%$340,000
80%$206,110
70%$135,680
60%$71,570
50%$31,760
40%$13,000
30%$2,000
20%$0
10%$0
Percentiles show the ranking of a particular debt result. So a 90% (ninetieth percentile) means that out 100 people the household ranked 90th would have a debt of around $340,000.

Share These Results :

These results are based off of 22975 individual samples where the head of household was age 18 to 100 and are weighted to represent 131306389 American households.

The numbers are based off of the results of the 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances by the Federal Reserve. They have the raw data freely available as well as their own dashboards. The number of samples per age vary quite a bit, so you might get unusual results for certain ages.

11/27/2020: Updated for 2019 data, and added new charts and graphs.

8 thoughts on “Debt by Age Percentile Rank Calculator [USA]”

  1. I think this is giving the wrong figure when I enter a debt of zero; it says that 0% have less /or equal/ to that debt. But when I put in $1, it says that 16.05% have less or equal. I doubt that this is the percent of people who have /between/ $0 and $1 in debt, but is presumably the number of people who are actually debt-free. Presumably the first figure is really those who have /less/ than 0 debt, but if you really meant less /or equal/, this should again be 16%.

  2. Depending on whether I count debt that I’ve incurred as part of investing in three rental houses or not, either 95% of people from 60 to 70 have less debt than me, or I have no debt at all. The debt (three 15-year mortgages at 4.25%, 4% and 3.375%) is the leverage that has enabled me to get an average return on equity of better than 10% for the past 5 years and my net worth has gotten a nice boost for having taken it on.

  3. Tim,
    I agree. Really what this should be asking is consumer debt and not debt associated with an appreciating asset. Even net debt. I owe $300k on a home. I have $4m in the bank. I have $0 consumer debt. If I use the $300k as my debt it appears I am in deep deep trouble. I keep the mortgage as my rate is 2.36%.
    Your situation reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend 10 years ago. At that time I had 11 income properties and mortgages of over $2m. He asked me how I could sleep at night. He was a fireman with no other income or assets other than his personal home. I asked him what the balance on his credit cards were. $4,000. I told him I had none and couldn’t sleep at night if had any credit card debt. lol.
    Andy

  4. Agree with Tim and Andy, this data is kind of misleading, because ‘good debt’ can be associated with an appreciating asset. I have $350,000 mortgage on my home in California, a state people are quick to bash for higher taxes and higher cost of living, including house prices. I moved from Michigan and did have to pay twice as much for the house in California as my home in Michigan However , taking on more debt has become the best single investment I ever made, as homes appreciated here and I increased my equity by $250,000 in 6 years while living in a place other people dream about living.

  5. This really should be inverted so that zero debt is “higher”.

    As it stands, the measurement is “You have more debt than this percentage of people.”

    A more useful measurement is, “You have less debt that this percentage of people.”

    And no, you can’t just subtract from 100.

    A debt of $0 gives a 0th percentile. A debt of $1 gives you the 23.4th percentile.
    It would be more useful to say, you owe $0 and therefore owe less than 76.6% of other people.
    Flipping it around might avoid the whole divide by 0 problem this calculator has for a $0 debt.

    My own situation is that I owe a NEGATIVE $1,389, i.e., my insurance company owes ME that much money because I sold the house for which a year’s insurance had been paid for before the year was up (and I have no other debts). As the calculator stands, everyone with merely $0 in debt should be in a higher percentile than me!

    1. Great feedback. I’ll go over the page and clean up some of the wording. I totally understand where you’re coming from with the $0, debt part and I’ll try to figure out how to make that better.

  6. Our income is 152000 which puts us in the 82nd percentile.
    But we have no debt, except what we charged less month.
    Seems to me we are better off than someone who owes 10k on a car and 25000k on a mortgage.
    Don’t we deserve a higher percentile?
    We are 76.

    1. You’re doing great! I personally wouldn’t worry too much if other people are doing better as long as you have a good life.

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