“In just two weeks, Americans will head to polls and select a new president to lead us for at least the next four years. As a result, newspapers, social media, and cable news networks are constantly looking at electoral maps and discussing the differences between red states and blue states. On that theme, Lending Club recently crunched some numbers in order to compare red states and blue states not by their political leanings but by the average amount of personal debt their residents hold.
Overall, citizens in states that were solidly red were found to have slightly less personal loan and credit card debt than their blue state counterparts. Interestingly, however, those in red states were more likely to be delinquent on their personal loans. Also notable is that battleground states — also sometimes referred to as “swing” or “purple” states — were found to have average debt amounts somewhere in the middle of the more partisan states.
Also explored in this infographic is the total amount of personal debt held by Americans, ranging from credit cards to car loans and beyond. At this point, just about everyone knows that the U.S. national debt is over $19 trillion dollars. However, did you know that personal debt in the United States has now surpassed $12 trillion? It’s true, although over $8 trillion of that figure comes from mortgages. Meanwhile the amount of student loan debt looks small by comparison, but $1.26 trillion is certainly no drop in the bucket.
So which states’ population had the most debt overall? That would be Alaska and Hawaii, which saw the highest average credit card debt and personal loan debt, respectively. On the other hand, North Dakota (a red state) managed the lowest average credit card balance while the battleground state of New Mexico boasts the lowest personal loan averages.
For more stats including a look at how your state compares, check out the chart below:
And here’s an embed code just in case:
