One in Five U.S. Families Is Behind on Payments, Worst Since 2010
The Federal Reserve Board released its triennial Survey of Consumer Finances on October 9, drawing on interviews with 4,367 U.S. families and data through the end of 2025. The headline finding: about 19.6% of borrowing families reported falling behind on at least one loan payment during the previous year, up from roughly 12.2% in the 2022 survey — a jump of more than seven percentage points in three years.
The depth of the problem grew too. Families at least two months behind on a payment rose from 5% to more than 8%, and the raw number of households in that category increased roughly 60% over the three-year period. "Families were more likely to be behind on their financial obligations than at any point since the 2010 survey," the report said — a reference to the years when the economy was still climbing out of the 2008 financial crisis, when the unemployment rate was double today's level.
Burdens deepened across the board. The share of families whose debt payments exceed 40% of income climbed to 8.6% from 6.5% in 2022, the highest since 2010. Median household debt — mortgages, credit cards, student loans and other obligations combined — rose from $170,200 to $183,600. Some 44.7% of families still owed money on their cards after the last payment, and use of buy-now-pay-later services spread from 7% to 12% of households.
The Fed's own explanation is a story of broken assumptions. "In planning their borrowing, families make assumptions about their future ability to repay their loans," the report said. "Problems may occur when events turn out to be contrary to those assumptions." Many consumers took on debt before 2026 without expecting such sharp increases in the price of gasoline, groceries and other essentials. The report warned that when economic shocks are sufficiently large and widespread, "a broad pattern of default, restraint in spending, and financial distress in the wider economy might ensue."
The same survey shows genuine gains on paper. Inflation-adjusted median family income rose 7% to $82,200, and median net worth rose 2% to $215,900, while mean net worth reached $1.24 million. Those averages hide a widening gap: the richest tenth of families saw median net worth climb 31% to $3.6 million, whereas households headed by someone under 35 saw median net worth fall 23% to $33,000.
The New York Fed's quarterly Household Debt and Credit Report provides a more recent snapshot. Total U.S. household debt hit $18.77 trillion in the second quarter of 2026, with credit card balances at $1.263 trillion. Nearly 13% of card balances are seriously past due, close to the peak reached after the 2010 housing crisis, and auto loan serious delinquency stood at 3.00%. Older borrowers are no longer insulated: serious card delinquency among those 70 and older reached 6.3%, the highest since 2011, while borrowers aged 18 to 29 hit 10.1%.
The squeeze reaches beyond loans. Urban Institute data show 20% of working-age renters missed or were late on rent in 2025 — the highest since tracking began, up from 16.5% a year earlier — with middle-income renters surging from 14.3% to 21.6%. Another 20.7% said they could not pay their heating and electricity bills in full. A September study by the Financial Health Network found 40% of households are not "completely confident" they can afford food, housing, utilities and transportation, and those reporting unmanageable debt rose from 29% to 31%.
The National Energy Assistance Directors Association estimates households will head into winter owing about $23 billion in utility bills, while families earning under $50,000 spend nearly 8% of after-tax income on utilities. If energy and living costs keep rising against a backdrop of high borrowing costs, delinquency could spread from loans to household bills — and from there to consumer spending.
The next test is consumption. Retail and dining spending has held up so far, but economists caution that tighter safety-net provisions and higher borrowing costs could push more families deeper into distress. The Fed's next survey is not due until 2029, so the quarterly New York Fed report, utility arrears and rent data will offer the earlier read on whether the winter of 2026 confirms the trend.