National Average Credit Scores

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Let’s face it, many of us are just plain competitive and some of us are curious. Then there are those that are worried about qualifying for a loan. So what do these groups have in common when it comes to credit scores? They all want to know how they compare to the national average credit score.

We’re not going to hold you in suspense – the national average credit score is 692 (November 2009). That value is based upon research conducted by Experian, one of the three major credit reporting and scoring agencies. In fact, Experian uses the Fair Isaac Risk Model. You may be familiar with what are called FICO(r) credit scores. FICO is the credit model developed by Fair Isaac.

Credit Score Scales and Calculations

We’ve talked about credit scores in depth in our article About Credit Scores, but some of the concepts explained there are worth briefly repeating. This explanation should help you to better understand how you compare to national average credit score.
Credit scores are on a scale from around 300 – 850, with 850 being the highest credit score possible. To give you a feel for the extremes, while the national average credit score is 680, only 13% of the nation’s population has scores above 800. At the other extreme, roughly 15% of the population has a credit score lower than 550. In general, a good credit score is anything above 700.

So that gives you two data points to think about. The national average credit score is 680 and a good credit score is anything above 700. Does that mean that half of all Americans have a credit score below the national average?

The short answer is No. In fact, 58% of Americans have credit scores above 700. The national average is only 680 because the average is being pulled down by some very low credit scores. Remember, we’re not talking about the median score (half above and half below), we’re talking about an average score.

Factors Affecting Credit Scores

There are a total of five bits of information that go into the calculation of your FICO credit score. But there are just two pieces of information that account for 65% of your total score:

Payment History (35% of credit score) – Your payment history is determined from your payment patterns to creditors or lenders. Basically, this component of the score is a reflection of how frequently you pay your bills or loans back on time.

Outstanding Debt (30% of credit score) – The second major factor is how much debt you have outstanding. The more debt you have outstanding, relative to what creditors think you can financially handle, the lower your credit score.

National Credit Score Facts

Now that you have a fundamental understanding of credit scoring, we thought it would be fun to share some of the facts have been gathered from the Experian National Score Index (November 2009). These credit score facts are based on information compiled from a large database of credit scores in the United States. This means the term national average credit score and average US credit score can be used interchangeably.

From the Experian database, we know the following facts:

Consumers in the state of Nevada have the lowest average credit score in the nation, with a score of 668. This is two points lower than Texas, which has the second lowest average in the US.

Consumers in the state of Minnesota have the highest average credit score in the nation with a score of 721. That’s over 50 points higher than Nevada.
There are 18 states plus the District of Columbia that have an average credit score below the national average.

There are 32 states that have an average credit score above the national average. Washington State placed in the upper tier with an average score of 707.

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