83.0 million people had a credit inquiry on their credit report from the previous six months at the end of June 2026, according to the New York Fed. A year earlier the figure was 76.5 million. That is an increase of 6.5 million, our subtraction.
The series peaked at 244.6 million in Q3 2006 and was lowest at 76.5 million in Q1 2025. In the 12 months to June 2026, 218.4 million accounts were opened and 224.9 million were closed.
Credit inquiries and new and closed accounts
| Quarter | People with a credit inquiry in the past 6 months | Accounts opened in the past 12 months | Accounts closed in the past 12 months |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 2003 | 218.8 million | 235.0 million | 275.4 million |
| Q1 2007 | 227.9 million | 248.4 million | 249.1 million |
| Q4 2009 | 156.2 million | 165.9 million | 318.7 million |
| Q4 2019 | 137.4 million | 215.9 million | 207.4 million |
| Q2 2024 | 78.8 million | 199.5 million | 190.7 million |
| Q2 2025 | 76.5 million | 199.3 million | 206.0 million |
| Q3 2025 | 82.3 million | 206.2 million | 209.0 million |
| Q4 2025 | 82.8 million | 212.1 million | 219.7 million |
| Q1 2026 | 79.8 million | 217.0 million | 222.7 million |
| Q2 2026 | 83.0 million | 218.4 million | 224.9 million |
Millions. The CSV has every quarter from Q1 2003.
What this counts
The inquiry figure counts people, not inquiries: a person with three applications counts once. It reflects credit inquiries as recorded in the New York Fed Consumer Credit Panel, built from Equifax files, and is a rough sign of how many people are seeking credit. It does not say whether they were approved. The account figures count accounts, not people. The inquiry count has fallen a long way since the mid-2000s, from more than 200 million to about 80 million. The workbook does not explain the decline, and changes in how inquiries are recorded may be part of it, so recent quarters are easier to compare than decades. For how often applications are turned down, see credit rejection rates and people who need credit but don’t apply.
Source
New York Fed Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit, 2026 Q2 (released August 2026), underlying data page 5, from the New York Fed Consumer Credit Panel / Equifax. We pulled the workbook on October 14, 2026.
© 2026 Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Content from the New York Fed subject to the Terms of Use at newyorkfed.org.
The New York Fed does not endorse this page, My Credit Guide, or any use of these figures. We have not changed the source figures. Anything labelled as a rank, a change, or a comparison is our calculation.
Our table is available under CC BY 4.0. Credit "My Credit Guide (mycreditguide.org)".
Steven Reynolds, "Credit Inquiries and New Accounts," My Credit Guide, October 14, 2026, https://mycreditguide.org/data/credit-inquiries-new-accounts/.