24% of Americans with a credit record are behind on their debts, new analysis finds

More Americans are tumbling seriously into debt as prices and the overall cost of living continue to rise.

Roughly 24% of people with a credit record are behind on medical bills, student debt, or auto or retail loans, according to a new analysis from the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan think tank. The median balance owed: $2,913. In communities of color, 30% of people are behind on payments, with a median debt in collection of $3,009.

"The increasing cost of living makes it harder for people to make payments on basic needs," Breno Braga, senior fellow in the family and financial well-being division at the Urban Institute, told CBS News. 

Rising interest rates this year as the Federal Reserve tries to tame inflation are also making it harder for people to catch up. "It's a reflection of the financial life of Americans these days as we know it," Braga added. 

Consumers' credit card balances have surged to a record $1.29 trillion, up nearly 70% from five years ago, according to new figures from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. 

Years of high prices have forced Americans to deplete their savings and finance their daily expenses with debt, according to Ted Rossman, principal consumer finance analyst at Money Management International, a nonprofit debt counselor. As a result, many household budgets are at a "breaking point," he said in an email to CBS News. 

Consumer prices have risen by an average of 30% since 2019, Rossman noted. Meanwhile, the share of Americans with debt in collection this year is up about one percentage point, from less than 23% in 2025, according to the Urban Institute, which based its findings on an analysis of more than 10 million credit records and U.S. Census data.

Student loans and medical bills

Roughly one in six, or almost 16%, of student loan borrowers are behind on payments, although the figure varies by geography. In Louisiana, for example, the state with the highest share of people with debt in collections, the student loan delinquency rate is roughly 22%. 

Braga attributes the disparity to several factors, such as lower incomes and higher poverty rates in some parts of the country.

"People there tend to have lower credit scores, so when they get a credit card or take out an auto loan, they tend to pay higher interest rates," he said. "That makes it harder to make those payments, especially if you are low income. It makes you more likely to fall behind."

Many people also are shouldering heavy medical bills despite having health insurance, reflecting insufficient coverage and the high cost of care across the U.S. 

According to the Urban Institute, 3% of Americans have medical debt in collections, with a median balance of $1,492 — a figure that reflects only unpaid hospital or other medical bills, while excluding credit card debt stemming from health care costs.

"People without health insurance are more likely to have medical debt, but having coverage does not protect you at all from having medical debt, especially not now with the high deductible plans we are seeing," Braga said. 

Fifteen states have passed legislation barring health care providers from reporting medical debt to credit rating agencies, which can lessen the damage to consumers' credit records.

"It's good for patients that it's not reported to the agencies, but that doesn't mean it disappears. It just isn't reported anymore," he noted.