Since I’ve been so enamored with finances and money over the last few years, I’ve started paying a lot more attention to content in these topics.

And over the last few years, I’ve come across tons of personal finance statistics relating to everything from debt, retirement savings, financial education, and beyond.

Needless to say, there are thousands of statistics and the numbers continue to evolve.

While more people are certainly interested in their finances, these statistics below are not-so pretty.

Eye-Popping Personal Finance Statistics

Doing some digging and research into various finance and money stats, the numbers were shocking, to say the least.

A few numbers were not too surprising to me. But seeing how rough some of these data points were, still puts me back in my seat and probably will for you too.

A few reasons I think America struggles so much financially includes:

Stagnant wages with increasing expenses (a stat below)

Taking on too much debt (credit card, loans, housing)

Not enough financial literacy to keep people out of bad financial situations

People trying to keep up appearances (Keeping up with the Joneses)

A heavy consumer mentality over an investor mentality

Of course, there are A LOT more stats that we could probably add to the list too. But I wanted to be selective and share some that can put things into perspective.

And unless a lot of the above I mentioned changes in America, as well as more people taking financial action, these below stats may get worse.

Personal Finance Stats About Saving Money

Saving money whether for emergencies, investing, or retirement is something every person should strive to improve at.

The challenge is everything is getting more expensive, wages can be stagnant, raising a family is not cheap, interest on loans are high, etc.

Let’s look at some concerning personal finance statistics about saving money.

Finance Stats Related to Debt

Similarly, another issue taking over America and other parts of the world is debt. Between student loans, relying on or overusing credit cards, and high mortgages, there are some holy sh$t stats about debt out there.

Here are a few:

Extra: I’m adding in this interesting chart below, that shows consumer debt among the different generations.

Generation Z: $2,047 average credit card debt

Generation Y: $4,315 average credit card debt

Generation X: $7,750 average credit card debt

Baby Boomers: $7,550 average credit card debt

Silent Generation: $4,613 average credit card debt

Finance Statistics Final Thoughts

Hopefully, the above personal finance statistics served not only as educational, but eye-opening to the current state of our finances.

I think financial literacy is a big missing part to why Americans finances are looking rough.

Despite the fact that America is the world’s largest economy, Americans actually rank 14th in financial literacy according to Standard & Poor’s Global Financial Literacy Survey.

Certainly not the worst position to be in, but troubling nonetheless.

And we all have unique stories and situations that put us at different financial levels. The real challenge is what are you doing to break the cycle and not become another concerning finance stat?

America has a lot of work to do to slow down these negative statistics, but a great first step is for us to take more initiative in our finances, money, and budgeting.