19.6% of U.S. families said they had been behind on a loan payment at some point in the year before their 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances interview, up from 12.2% in 2022. 8.2% had been two months or more behind, up from 4.9%. Both are the highest of the five surveys from 2013 to 2025 that the Fed’s report table covers. The Fed’s summary describes the late-payment share as the highest since the 2010 survey.
The share of families whose required debt payments were more than 40% of their income rose from 6.5% to 8.6%, which the Fed says is the largest share since 2010. The share turned down for credit was unchanged at 10.1%.
Debt burdens and credit problems, 2013 to 2025
| Measure (share of all families) | 2013 | 2016 | 2019 | 2022 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Late on any loan payment in the past year | 14.9% | 13.5% | 12.3% | 12.2% | 19.6% |
| Late by two months or more | 6.9% | 5.8% | 4.6% | 4.9% | 8.2% |
| Debt payments more than 40% of income | 8.2% | 7.0% | 7.4% | 6.5% | 8.6% |
| Turned down for credit (past year) | n.a. | 10.8% | 10.7% | 10.1% | 10.1% |
| Did not apply for fear of being turned down (past year) | n.a. | 14.4% | 12.7% | 12.9% | 13.5% |
| Took out a payday loan in the past year | 4.2% | 3.4% | 2.8% | 2.1% | 2.6% |
| Declared bankruptcy in the past 5 years | 4.1% | 3.0% | 2.0% | 1.3% | 1.4% |
| Do not carry a credit card balance | 64.0% | 57.5% | 56.0% | 55.7% | 55.8% |
n.a.: not asked in that form in 2013. Figures are the Fed’s published estimates, copied from Table 5 of the report; we did not recalculate them.
Who has debt payments above 40% of income
Counting only families that have debt, 11.1% had required debt payments of more than 40% of their income in 2025, up from 8.4% in 2022, according to the Fed’s detailed survey tables. (The 8.6% above is the same group as a share of all families.) The median family with debt spent 15.4% of its income on debt payments, up from 13.4%.
Heavy payment burdens are concentrated at the bottom of the income range: 25.6% of debtor families in the lowest fifth of incomes had payments above 40% of income, against 2.1% in the top tenth. Homeowners were more likely than renters to cross the line, because mortgage payments count as debt payments and rent does not.
| Group | Category | Debtors with payments over 40% of income, 2025 | 2022 | Median payment-to-income, debtors, 2025 | Debtors 60+ days late on any payment, 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All families | All | 11.1% | 8.4% | 15.4% | 10.7% |
| Less than 20 | Percentile of income | 25.6% | 23.1% | 15.5% | 24.8% |
| 20–39.9 | Percentile of income | 14.7% | 11.3% | 14.1% | 15.5% |
| 40–59.9 | Percentile of income | 11.4% | 7.5% | 17.3% | 11.8% |
| 60–79.9 | Percentile of income | 6.7% | 3.1% | 17.8% | 5.8% |
| 80–89.9 | Percentile of income | 3.2% | 3.4% | 14.2% | 1.7% |
| 90–100 | Percentile of income | 2.1% | 0.7% | 10.0% | 0.6% |
| Less than 35 | Age of reference person (years) | 8.2% | 7.1% | 13.9% | 13.1% |
| 35–44 | Age of reference person (years) | 11.3% | 9.4% | 15.8% | 13.1% |
| 45–54 | Age of reference person (years) | 13.5% | 5.8% | 17.2% | 12.6% |
| 55–64 | Age of reference person (years) | 11.0% | 10.6% | 15.1% | 9.0% |
| 65–74 | Age of reference person (years) | 10.0% | 9.8% | 14.0% | 7.3% |
| 75 or more | Age of reference person (years) | 14.5% | 8.5% | 13.2% | 5.2% |
| Less than 25 | Percentile of net worth | 9.8% | 6.0% | 8.8% | 25.0% |
| 25–49.9 | Percentile of net worth | 16.4% | 12.1% | 19.8% | 12.9% |
| 50–74.9 | Percentile of net worth | 12.2% | 9.3% | 18.9% | 5.2% |
| 75–89.9 | Percentile of net worth | 5.6% | 6.3% | 14.8% | 1.8% |
| 90–100 | Percentile of net worth | 4.6% | 4.7% | 9.0% | 0.3% |
| Owner | Housing status | 13.9% | 10.5% | 19.2% | 7.1% |
| Renter or other | Housing status | 4.5% | 3.8% | 7.1% | 19.3% |
Share of families with any debt in each group, from Table 18 of the Fed’s 2025 SCF tables (internal data, the version the Fed’s report uses); we did not recalculate them. Percentiles of income and net worth are ranks among all families. Groups are by the age of the family’s reference person. The CSV has every survey from 1989. Added October 16, 2026.
What this counts
The Survey of Consumer Finances interviews a sample of families every three years and weights the answers to represent all U.S. families. Only families with debt at the time of the interview are asked whether they were behind on any loan payment in the past year, and the Fed reports the result as a share of all families. "Behind" is the family’s own answer, not a credit report record. Survey estimates have a margin of error.
The payday loan figure here (2.6% of families) is a different measure from the Fed’s separate household survey, which counts adults; see our payday, pawn and title loan page.
Source
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2022 to 2025: Evidence from the Survey of Consumer Finances, October 2026, Table 5 and accompanying text. Federal Reserve data are public domain. We downloaded the report on October 13, 2026. Our table is available under CC BY 4.0. Credit "My Credit Guide (mycreditguide.org)".
Steven Reynolds, "Families Behind on Loan Payments," My Credit Guide, October 13, 2026, https://mycreditguide.org/data/families-behind-on-loan-payments/.