Gen Z has an average of $2,834 in credit card debt, over 25% more than millennials before them
NY Post
Inflation-battered Gen Zers face a debt load that is significantly higher than their millennial brethren carried when they were their age, according to a troubling new report.
The average credit-card balance for 22- to 24-year-olds — the prime age for Zoomers — was $2,834 in the last quarter of 2023, compared with an average inflation-adjusted balance of $2,248 in the same period in 2013, according to new data from Credit bureau TransUnion.
Gen Z’s 26% increase in average debt reflects a surge in prices for food and housing, coupled with a larger percentage in that age group who graduated with student loans, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported on the data.
Because of their debt burden, economists say younger people are more delinquent on credit-card payments and are more likely to rely on their family for help — while likely delaying life milestones such as homeownership and marriage.
“This is a generation that is feeling financial stress in a more acute way than millennials did a decade ago,” Charlie Wise, head of global research at TransUnion, told the Journal.
Gen Zer Lindsay Quackenbush was recently working for a publishing company that paid her $60,000 a year — which the 26-year-old relied on to cover her portion of rent in a New York City basement apartment she shared with her boyfriend.
