What Is the Average Credit Score in America And What Does It Mean for You?

The average credit score in America is 713 as of September 2025, based on Experian's FICO Score 8 data a two-point drop from 715 in 2024 and the first annual decline recorded since 2013.

While 713 still qualifies as "Good" under FICO's tiering system, the direction of the shift and what's driving it tells a more complicated story than a single number reveals.

The National Average FICO Score: Where It Stands Today

Year	National Average FICO Score	Change
2023	715	—
2024	715	No change
2025	713	−2 points

Source: Experian FICO Score 8 data, September of each year

A score of 713 places most borrowers comfortably within the "Good" tier sufficient to qualify for the majority of standard loan products. Approximately 70% of Americans currently hold a score of 670 or above.

The breakdown across tiers reveals something more nuanced: the share of consumers in the "Poor" range (300–579) climbed from 13.2% to 14.7%, while the "Exceptional" category (800–850) reached an all-time high of 22.8%. The middle is quietly thinning while both ends grow.

Credit professionals consistently point out that a two-point national shift rarely signals mass financial distress in isolation.

The indicators that matter more are delinquency rate trajectories and how the population distributes across score tiers both of which are worth examining in detail.

FICO Score vs. VantageScore — Which Model Produces the 713 Figure?

The 713 national average is a FICO Score 8 number. That distinction matters more than most articles acknowledge, because two competing scoring models dominate the market and they measure things differently.

Feature	FICO Score 8	VantageScore 3.0
Score Range	300–850	300–850
Poor	300–579	300–600
Fair	580–669	601–660
Good	670–739	661–780
Very Good	740–799	N/A (merged into Good)
Exceptional / Excellent	800–850	781–850
Most Used By	Mortgage, auto, and bank lenders	Free credit monitoring tools

Source: FICO, VantageScore Solutions

Most banks and lenders use FICO scores when evaluating loan and credit card applications. VantageScore is what surfaces on free consumer tools Chase Credit Journey, Credit Karma, and similar platforms.

A 713 under FICO lands in "Good." The same number on VantageScore also falls within its "Good" band, but the tier boundaries shift slightly, which can create confusion when comparing scores across platforms.

One thing most consumers don't realize: you don't have a single credit score. You have dozens. Different lenders pull different models and versions, which can move your apparent score by several points depending on which one is used.

Knowing which model applies to a specific lending decision changes how meaningfully you can interpret the number.

How Credit Scores Differ by Age Group

Scores generally climb with ag not because older consumers are inherently more responsible with money, but for structural reasons rooted in how FICO calculates scores.

Credit history length accounts for 15% of a FICO score, and credit mix tends to broaden naturally over decades car loans, mortgages, and revolving credit lines all accumulate with time.

Generational Score Averages — 2025 vs. 2026

Generation	Age Range	2025 Average	2026 Average	Change
Generation Z	18–28	681	678	−3 points
Millennials	29–44	691	689	−2 points
Generation X	45–60	709	709	No change
Baby Boomers	61–79	746	747	+1 point
Silent Generation	80+	760	760	No change

Credit Score Averages by Decade of Life

Age Group	Approximate Average Score
20s	~662
30s	~672
40s	~684
50s	~706
60s and above	~749

Source: General industry figures; approximate

Younger generations absorbed the sharpest declines in 2026. Gen Z fell three points; Millennials fell two. Both cohorts carry heavier student debt loads relative to older generations and have less home equity or savings to absorb financial shocks.

According to Fortune, researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York projected that more than 9 million student loan borrowers would face substantial declines in credit standing, with around 2 million near-prime borrowers seeing an average 100-point drop a fall severe enough to push many out of prime borrowing territory entirely.

Baby Boomers, by contrast, held steady or improved slightly. Paid-down mortgages, fewer open credit lines, and decades of on-time payment history make their credit profiles significantly more resistant to short-term economic pressure.

Credit Score Rankings by State — 2026 Data

No state recorded a higher average credit score in 2026 than in 2025. Three states — Illinois, Maine, and Vermont — held flat. Every other state declined.

Highest average: Vermont — 737 Lowest average: Mississippi — 677 Steepest declines: Louisiana and Washington D.C. — both dropped 4 points

State	2025 Average	2026 Average	Change
Alaska	722	720	−2
Alabama	692	689	−3
Arkansas	695	693	−2
Arizona	712	709	−3
California	722	721	−1
Colorado	731	729	−2
Connecticut	726	724	−2
District of Columbia	715	711	−4
Delaware	714	713	−1
Florida	707	704	−3
Georgia	695	692	−3
Hawaii	732	730	−2
Iowa	730	728	−2
Idaho	730	729	−1
Illinois	720	720	0
Indiana	712	710	−2
Kansas	722	720	−2
Kentucky	705	704	−1
Louisiana	690	686	−4
Massachusetts	732	731	−1
Maryland	715	714	−1
Maine	731	731	0
Michigan	719	717	−2
Minnesota	742	741	−1
Missouri	714	712	−2
Mississippi	680	677	−3
Montana	732	730	−2
North Carolina	709	707	−2
North Dakota	733	730	−3
Nebraska	731	728	−3
New Hampshire	736	735	−1
New Jersey	724	722	−2
New Mexico	702	701	−1
Nevada	701	699	−2
New York	721	719	−2
Ohio	716	713	−3
Oklahoma	696	693	−3
Oregon	732	730	−2
Pennsylvania	722	720	−2
Rhode Island	721	719	−2
South Carolina	700	699	−1
South Dakota	734	731	−3
Tennessee	706	703	−3
Texas	695	692	−3
Utah	730	728	−2
Virginia	723	721	−2
Vermont	737	737	0
Washington	735	734	−1
Wisconsin	738	737	−1
West Virginia	702	699	−3
Wyoming	725	722	−3

The consistency of declines across every region regardless of local economy, political makeup, or industry base points clearly to national-level forces. Inflation, rising unemployment, and tighter lending conditions do not stop at state lines.

How Americans Are Distributed Across Credit Score Tiers

A single national average smooths over significant variation. The distribution across tiers reveals a more telling picture.

Score Tier Distribution — 2025 vs. 2026

Score Range	Rating	2025	2026
300–579	Poor	13.2%	14.7%
580–669	Fair	15.5%	14.9%
670–739	Good	21.0%	20.1%
740–799	Very Good	27.8%	27.5%
800–850	Exceptional	22.5%	22.8%

The middle tiers Fair, Good, and Very Good all contracted modestly. The extremes grew in opposite directions. More Americans dropped into the Poor range; more simultaneously reached Exceptional.

Whether this reflects deepening financial inequality, a temporary divergence in household financial resilience, or a coincidence of economic timing is difficult to state definitively.

What the numbers confirm: the score landscape is polarizing at both ends rather than shifting uniformly downward.

The Five Factors That Determine Your Credit Score

Every FICO score is calculated from five specific inputs, and they carry different weight.

FICO Score Components and Their Impact

Factor	Weight	What It Measures
Payment History	35%	On-time vs. missed payments
Amounts Owed	30%	Balances relative to credit limits
Length of Credit History	15%	Age of oldest and newest accounts
Credit Mix	10%	Variety of account types
New Credit	10%	Recent applications and hard inquiries

Payment history carries the single largest weight by a significant margin. One missed payment can leave a visible impact on a score that takes months to fade.

Credit professionals note that borrowers who contest sudden score drops frequently discover a single 30-day-late payment sitting quietly in their history from years prior.

Credit Utilization: The Most Actionable Lever

The national average credit utilization rate held at 29% in 2026 unchanged for three consecutive years. This rules out increased card spending as a primary cause of the national score decline.

FICO Score Range	Average Utilization Rate
Poor (300–579)	79%
Fair (580–669)	61%
Good (670–739)	39%
Very Good (740–799)	15%
Exceptional (800–850)	7%

The 30% threshold is widely cited as the ceiling to stay under. That's accurate but incomplete. Consumers with Exceptional scores average just 7% utilization.

In practice, keeping balances under 10% on each individual card tends to produce stronger results than simply staying under 30% across all accounts combined.

Why the Average Credit Score in America Fell in 2026

No single factor caused the decline several forces converged simultaneously.Unemployment rose from historically low levels, and delinquency rates followed.

As reported by CNBC, high interest rates and elevated consumer prices created sustained financial strain, with consumers falling deeper into debt and missing payments at increasing rates throughout the period.

The discontinuation of the SAVE student loan repayment plan pushed monthly obligations higher for nearly 8 million borrowers a cohort concentrated in Gen Z and Millennial age groups.

Rising shelter costs and ongoing inflation on essential goods added additional pressure to household budgets.

What did not drive the decline: credit card overuse. Utilization remained flat at 29%.

Delinquency Rates by Loan Category — 2023 to 2025

Account Type	2023	2024	2025
Credit Card	2.45%	2.40%	2.31%
Mortgage	1.88%	2.24%	2.45%
Auto Loans	3.51%	3.68%	3.78%
Personal Loans (Unsecured)	3.89%	3.86%	3.76%

Mortgage and auto loan delinquencies climbed steadily. Credit card and personal loan delinquencies improved slightly likely because some borrowers consolidated high-interest card balances into personal loans or home equity lines at lower rates.

What Your Credit Score Unlocks in the Lending Market

Where your score sits determines not just which loan products you can access, but what those products will actually cost you over time.

Minimum Score Requirements by Loan Type

Loan Type	Typical Minimum Score	Notes
Conventional Mortgage	620–640	Higher scores unlock lower rates
FHA Mortgage	500–580	3.5% down requires 580+
Auto Loan	600–660	Subprime options exist below 600
Personal Loan	580–640	Varies significantly by lender
Credit Card (standard)	580–670	Secured cards available below 580

These represent general industry ranges. Individual lenders set their own minimums and adjust rates based on the full credit profile.

A 713 qualifies for most of these products. But qualifying and securing a competitive rate are two different outcomes.

The rate difference between a 680 and a 760 score on a 30-year mortgage can translate to a meaningfully higher monthly payment across the life of the loan not because of the score itself, but because of the interest rate tier that score unlocks.

Practical Steps to Strengthen Your Credit Score

Each of the five FICO factors offers a specific and actionable path to improvement.Make every payment on time. At 35% of your score, payment history is the most consequential factor.

Automating minimum payments eliminates the risk of a missed due date. Even a single 30-day-late payment can pull a score noticeably downward.

Reduce revolving balances. Paying down credit card balances particularly below 10% per card tends to produce stronger score improvements than simply staying under the commonly cited 30% overall threshold.

Keep old accounts open. Closing a long-standing card shortens your average account age and reduces total available credit. Both effects can push scores lower.

Space out new credit applications. Each hard inquiry creates a small, temporary dip. Several applications in a short window compound that effect and signal increased risk to lenders.

Let credit mix develop naturally. This factor improves organically over time as car loans, mortgages, and personal loans are added across different life stages. Deliberate action to manufacture credit mix rarely produces proportional results.

On timelines: Utilization improvements can appear within one to two billing cycles. Recovering from missed payments or collections requires 12 to 24 months of sustained positive behavior at minimum. Negative marks generally remain on a credit report for up to seven years.

Conclusion

The average credit score in America stands at 713 in 2026 still within the "Good" tier, but declining for the first time in more than a decade. Economic pressure, not reckless borrowing behavior, is driving the shift.

Payment history and credit utilization remain the two most controllable levers available to any borrower working to improve their position.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the average credit score in America right now?

The national average is 713, based on Experian's FICO Score 8 data from September 2025. It fell two points from 715 in 2024 the first annual decline since 2013.

Is 700 a good credit score in America?

Yes. A 700 score falls within the "Good" tier (670–739) and sits above the national average. Most standard loan products are accessible at this level, though the best interest rate tiers typically require 740 or above.

What percentage of Americans have exceptional credit?

As of September 2025, 22.8% of Americans have an Exceptional score (800–850) an all-time high, according to Experian data.

Does age directly affect your credit score?

Age itself is not a scored FICO factor. However, older consumers tend to hold longer credit histories and more varied credit types, both of which contribute positively to scores over time.

Which state has the lowest average credit score?

Mississippi recorded the lowest state average in 2025 at 677, according to Experian's September 2025 data.