The most specific kind of debt people in the United States deal with is mortgages, which comprise the bulk of household debt. 

However, in a new analysis released by online lending marketplace LendingTree, most Americans also owe thousands of dollars other than their home loans, with Gen X footing the most expensive bill compared to other generations.

Gen X Owes Most Non-Mortgage Debt

The analysis revealed that, based on over 428,000 anonymized credit reports from LendingTree users across the 100 largest metropolis areas in the US between October 1, 2023, and March 31, 2024, the median non-mortgage debt is $24,668.

All generations have been analyzed to determine how much they owe on the four non-mortgage debts: credit card, auto loan, student loan, and personal loan. 

But breaking down the generational line, Gen X had a median non-mortgage debt of $33,859, followed by the Millennials ($30,558), most of which include student loans, Baby Boomers ($18,779), and Gen Z ($16,562). 

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Debt Across Generations

NewsNation reported that each generation has a particularly prominent type of debt. 

Despite being the oldest prominent generation alive, Baby Boomers carry less non-mortgage debt than Gen Xers and Millennials. They mostly owe credit card debt, but at least 11% still have student loans, and 48% still have auto loans. 

The Gen X cohort has the highest average debt per generation and the largest share of people with debt, with nearly 99% of them carrying some type of balance. They led the way in three of the four categories studied: credit card, auto, and student loan debt.

Next in line are the Millennials, who have had less time than Gen Xers to acquire stacks of debt that went past the Baby Boomers. Most of the non-mortgage debts owed by the Millennials, also known as Gen Y, are centered around student and auto loans. 

While Gen Z has the lowest average debt, 97% of them carry a balance, mostly student loans but also auto debt. Part of the reason they place last is that some of them still attend college, while others are less likely to attend higher education at all. 

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