Facts

Americans are the world's best consumers, even when we don't have money to spend. But, as it turns out, with all the worry about Americans being free and easy with Amex and Visa, our personal debts are still smaller than our assets (on the whole). This page gives a snapshot of the spending and saving habits of Americans.

Spending

How much the average* America household spends a year (2004) BLS (pdf)

• Total: $43,395 (we earned on average $54,453, before taxes)

What we spend it on:

source: BLS (pdf)

*The "average" household has 1.3 earners and 2.5 people

Personal debt

• Average household debt:

  • $38,800 Fed (pdf) ("median" average - that is, half of us owe more and half of us owe less)

  • $84,454 (2004) according to USAT (we assume they mean the "mean" average - you add up all households' debt and divide by the number of households)

What kind of personal debt owe (2001)

source: Fed (pdf)

Assets

What our assets are in:

source: Fed (pdf) (2001)

Net worth:

When you add up our debts and assets, the average American comes out in the black. (2004) Fed (pdf)

Servicing our debt

One way to keep an eye on our debt problem is to track how much of our income we spend on servicing our debt (that is, paying interest on our loans). The graph below shows the percentage of our income we have to spend to repay our debts.

sources: Census and Fed (pdf)

Where the facts are from

• Bureau of Labor Statistics

• Census Bureau

• Federal Reserve

• USA Today

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