By the numbers
Credit card debt in Wisconsin has reached a level not seen since the 2008 financial crisis, data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York show.
Credit card debt per capita in Wisconsin — that is, the average level of credit card debt of a Wisconsin resident — climbed steadily to a peak in 2008, coinciding with the financial crisis. Per capita debt then fell sharply until 2013.
Borrowing began to modestly tick upward until the 2020 pandemic, falling during a significant decrease in consumer spending on shopping, dining out, and travel. Borrowing then began rising sharply in 2022 and 2023, a period in which prices rose faster than real wages. (The Badger Institute previously reported on trends in real wages in Wisconsin.)
After adjusting for inflation, the real value of credit card debt was much higher before the Great Recession. The data show that real balances are lower today than they were in 2019.
The data come from the New York Fed’s Consumer Credit Panel, a collection of anonymized data about consumer borrowing gathered from Equifax records.
Credit card delinquency is another measure of the financial health of borrowers. The delinquency rate measures the percentage of overall credit card debt balances that are delinquent by 90 days or more.
The delinquency rate spiked in 2009 in the aftermath the Great Recession. It was on the rise again before the pandemic, but increases halted in 2020. Between 2022 and 2023, however, there was a noticeable uptick.
The underlying numbers
| Year | Nominal credit card debt per capita (current dollars) | Real credit card debt per capita (constant 2023 dollars) | Delinquency rate |
| 2003 | 2,510 | 4,177.59 | 6.48 |
| 2004 | 2,620 | 4,219.63 | 6.57 |
| 2005 | 2,810 | 4,379.43 | 5.76 |
| 2006 | 2,850 | 4,332.42 | 6.96 |
| 2007 | 3,130 | 4,570.28 | 6.9 |
| 2008 | 3,250 | 4,746.55 | 6.96 |
| 2009 | 3,020 | 4,289.92 | 9.00 |
| 2010 | 2,750 | 3,851.01 | 8.64 |
| 2011 | 2,650 | 3,600.72 | 7.50 |
| 2012 | 2,510 | 3,351.52 | 6.54 |
| 2013 | 2,380 | 3,130.58 | 6.04 |
| 2014 | 2,420 | 3,162.54 | 4.82 |
| 2015 | 2,440 | 3,168.44 | 4.88 |
| 2016 | 2,530 | 3,219.28 | 4.47 |
| 2017 | 2,630 | 3,276.74 | 4.74 |
| 2018 | 2,660 | 3,249.05 | 5.06 |
| 2019 | 2,770 | 3,306.71 | 5.47 |
| 2020 | 2,450 | 2,887.04 | 6.29 |
| 2021 | 2,510 | 2,759.69 | 5.34 |
| 2022 | 2,820 | 2,913.71 | 4.94 |
| 2023 | 3,130 | 3,130.00 | 6.43 |
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