Credit Trends

Credit Scores By State

While the average credit score in the United States is 664, the average credit score in states can vary considerably.

We thought it would be fun to share some interesting tidbits of information that shine through as we look at credit scores across the states. 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 Credit Karma database, we know the following facts about credit scores by states for this month:

Comments

(22 Total Comments)

This isn't a map of financial responsibility. Someone who has never had a credit card (credit history) could be very credit worthy, but they don't have a high score. I think the value in this map is your chances of obtaining a good loan in each state. The lenders will compare your score to the average of the people in the city or the state, and you may need a higher score in California just to compete.

janiesuper at 6:21 am Feb 5

I see this chart as just a fun way to compare your state to other states as far as credit score rating. It is what it is and I think trying to read more into the information is silly. The average score for your state is in no way indicative of your personal score. For example, I live in Louisiana which unfortunately has the lowest average score in the country next to Mississippi. However, my personal credit score is currently 763. I was born, grew up, went to college and currently live in Louisiana. So as you can see it doesn't make much sense to generalize an entire state based on their average credit score.

minislap at 8:27 am Feb 2

All of these blanket stab responses come as no surprise to me. You cant just reach into thin air put a trend on an entire states average credit score based on stereotypical culture. All credit scores represent is a span of time monitoring an individuals ability to use credit wisely or not. Individually using credit certainly has nothing to do with political view, especially if you belong to neither party. You can live life just getting by or filthy rich and have an 800 score in either case or a 500 score in either case. If you have to point to a more pertinent demographic, the most relevant factors to FICO and credit score is likely due to age of individual and longevity of their credit history practices.

madpuppy54 at 2:56 am Feb 2

This looks more like a map of poverty than anything else to me. There aren't any confidence intervals here... this graph doesn't show much for comparison between states. How big a difference is 50 points on a credit score? Yeah, maybe 100 points is pretty big, but scores have a range and I don't think this map shows much.

mhmwatkins at 11:11 pm Oct 13

I guess we could show the standard deviation, but our goal is not to create a stats site. This is meant to be informal data.

CK Moderator

You can correlate a lot of things from this. Political party, sure. Percent of obesity is another.

Interesting comment about correlation of political party to credit scores. Some truth, but mostly non-truths. As was said before, credit scores measure how well you pay off your debt. So if you dont have debt, it shows a lower score. Fiscal responsibility in some cultures have different meanings. In Southern Cal, it would be to make on-time payments on your 10 credit cards that were spent on material unessentials, like clothes and chrome wheels on a BMW. In the rural Midwest, financial responsibility would be to save up money and buy a used car with cash. Yet, who would have the higher "credit score"? The Californian. Now if there were a color coded map based on debt/income ratio, I wouldn't be shocked to see a reversal, except of course for the deep south.

cactusjuba at 3:55 pm Sep 28

I completely agree with your statement here. The west tend to be financially irresponsible while the east tends to be financially responsible, however we tend to pay cash for items, yet our credit score suffers from that...since we weren't taught to go out and get a credit card and build our credit in that fashion.

imkain at 10:12 am Nov 5

Talk about stereotyping. I saved up and bought a new mini truck with cash. I carry little debt and pay my bills ahead of time. My score is around 770, and I'm 100% Californian, Los Angeleno. I'm also a liberal, and support unions.

wildgift at 11:26 pm Jan 20

MN and DC are in the lead.

dharr2q at 10:28 am Sep 13

No one is even close to 695 of Minnesota. Go them I guess. What makes them good and most of the rest of us suck?

deadclock at 1:34 pm Oct 13

Perhaps a factor for DC is that it has a high percentage of well-paid government employees with good health insurance and a huge percentage of bankruptcies are as a result of inability to pay medical bills.

As for Minnesota, it does have probably the cleanest politics in the nation. Possibly an intolerance for corruption also extends into personal behavior...ie, if you borrow, you pay back.

Then again, maybe it's just random happenstance.

sfnoev at 1:29 pm Dec 31

Gee Darwon, how observant you are! So let me see if I follow your logic...being highly in debt for a long period of time is a good thing right? California and New York are on the brink of financial colapse, and these "blue states" are the example to follow? oh and just for the record, the blue states were republican till the liberal media changed them after the Reagan landslide victory (of 48-2)

kenny1sky at 12:51 am Aug 18

MA and NJ are in the lead...

skolluri at 12:01 pm Jul 28

Your credit score does not represent your level of responsibility with money...it represents your level of responsibility with DEBT.

Most of the states with higher average scores also have higher costs of living, and the associated level of indebtedness that goes with that, this includes of course, higher credit limits and in turn, more variety in balance to limit ratios, as well as much more depth in personal credit history where people have had and paid off larger numbers of loans and credit cards.

In rural states there are still many people who have little to no credit history, people who still pay their bills primarily by cash or check and don't make use of credit cards at all. Because they have very brief credit histories, naturally their credit scores will be lower.

Remember, a credit score simply tells a lender how likely you are to pay your bill on time...it says nothing about how you manage your money outside of those constraints.

bryantn at 2:35 pm Jun 19

Very, very true bryantn. In the US, you are guilty until proven inocent in the case of a credit score. If you have no loans or credit cards, you have a low or no credit rating. If on the other hand, you have a high mortgage and lots of credit cards, you get a high credit rating. there is something intrinsically wrong with this system.

VanEnoo at 3:51 pm Oct 8