Credit scores can feel like an abstraction, something to worry about if you are shopping for a mortgage, applying for an auto loan, or, in some cases, trying to rent an apartment.
But for most Americans, the real question about credit scores is the simplest: how does mine stack up against others in my generation? The answer depends on when you were born.
But it isn't as close as you might think. The national average FICO Score is 715, according to Experian's latest consumer credit data, but the spread between the youngest and oldest generations is 79 points.
Understanding how your generation's average stacks up is important, because it can help you identify if you are being held back by credit report errors, out-of-date information, or collection accounts that shouldn't be there in the first place. Here are the average credit scores for each generation, based on 2024 to 2025 data:
Why These Numbers Matter for Your Financial Future
Gen Z consumers, age 18 to 27, have an average FICO Score of 681. Millennials, age 28 to 43, come in at 691. Gen X, age 44 to 59, checks in at 709. The largest gap comes at retirement age. Baby Boomers average 746, while those in the Silent Generation average 760. Experian has reported an average credit score of 760 for the Silent Generation for four straight years.
VantageScore 4.0 scores are lower for both generations, but the spread is similar. Gen Z adults have a VantageScore 4.0 of 663, compared with 740 for Baby Boomers. It is not until you hit your 30s that credit scores really start to climb, increasing about 20 points per decade until retirement. Here is how the credit score calculation is weighted.
Average Credit Scores by Generation: The 2024 to 2025 Data
Where Each Generation Stands Right Now
Experian's most recent data, its Q3 2024 consumer credit review, breaks down the average FICO Scores as follows:
- Gen Z consumers (born 1997 or later): 681
- Millennials (born 1982 to 1996): 691
- Gen X (born 1965 to 1981): 709
- Baby Boomers (born 1946 to 1964): 746
- Silent Generation (born 1945 or earlier): 760
VantageScore 4.0 data looks similar. In its most recent data, Experian reports Gen Z at 663 and Baby Boomers at 740. The difference between the FICO and VantageScore numbers is not surprising, because the scoring models weigh different credit report factors in different ways.
But the overall trend is the same. Scores remain relatively flat in young adulthood. Experian data shows that 18- to 20-year-olds have an average credit score of 680, and that number only increases to 682 by age 25. Scores do not really start climbing until the 30s, increasing about 20 points per decade until retirement.
The 2025 Decline Nobody Saw Coming
For more than a decade, the national average FICO Score had been increasing, climbing 26 points from 689 in 2010 to 715 in 2024.
But in 2025, the national average actually decreased for the first time in more than a decade. Experian reported that the national average credit score fell to 713. Gen Z felt the brunt of the decline, with its average score falling 3 points from the prior year, the largest year-over-year drop of any generation.
FICO's first Credit Insights Report, released in July 2025, confirmed the decline, pointing to increased credit card balances, a rise in delinquencies, and the resumption of student loan reporting as contributing factors.
Why Your Age Works Against You in Credit Scoring
The Structural Bias Built into Every FICO Score
While the credit scoring model is meant to be neutral, there is an inherent structural bias at play. Fifteen percent of the FICO credit score calculation is based on the length of your credit history, and 10 percent is based on your mix of credit accounts. That means a 22-year-old, all else being equal, will have a lower credit score than a 55-year-old simply because they have had less time to build their credit history.
Former CFPB Director Rohit Chopra highlighted this issue at a FinRegLab conference in 2024. "Credit scores can only make predictions about people with credit histories," he said. "Young people and others entering the financial system are penalized, often harshly."
Data from the Federal Reserve supports that assertion. Consumers who enter the credit bureau system at age 18 have an average FICO Score 18 points higher at age 30 than consumers who enter the system at age 20.
The Credit Invisibility Problem
Before you can worry about your credit score, you have to actually have one. But many young consumers are credit invisible, meaning they do not have a credit report at all. The CFPB estimates that 64 percent to 67 percent of consumers ages 18 and 19 are credit invisible. Most consumers transition out of credit invisibility in their mid- to late 20s.
But those extra years can come at a cost, in the form of higher interest rates, security deposits on utilities, and rental application rejections at a time when they can least afford it. The Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act of 2009 contributed to the problem by prohibiting credit card companies from issuing credit cards to consumers under age 21 unless they have an independent income source or a cosigner.
While the law was enacted to protect young adults, Federal Reserve researchers have pointed out that it resulted in a generation of "missing young" in credit bureau data, effectively pushing back the starting point for their credit histories. For more news you can use to help guide your financial decisions, visit our Insights page.
How the Middle Credit Tier Is Being Hollowed Out
Credit health in America just fell into a K-shaped pattern. FICO's September 2025 Credit Insights Report documents a widening chasm between the haves and have-nots of credit scores. The share of consumers with scores in the middle range (600–749) dropped from 38.1 percent in 2021 to 33.8 percent in 2025, while the number of consumers with scores at either extreme grew.
VantageScore's CreditGauge data tell the same story: Superprime consumers rose to 31.2 percent of consumers, while Subprime grew to 18.3 percent and Prime, falling in the middle, shrank to 33.1 percent.
“The bifurcation in consumer credit health continued, as the younger and less affluent continued to be among the most impacted by continued inflation and high interest rates,” said Susan Fahy, EVP and Chief Digital Officer at VantageScore.
What K-Shaped Divergence Means at Every Age
But not every generation is affected equally by this polarization. Gen Z is bifurcating faster than any other age group. While 50 percent of credit-active Gen Z consumers already have prime or above credit scores—the highest proportion of any generation at the same life stage—nearly half of Gen Z consumers have turned to credit cards or buy-now-pay-later plans when their income is disrupted.
Middle-class consumers face a particular risk. A single collection account (maybe a medical bill that was sent to collections without your realizing it) or an error on your credit report could mean the difference between a prime credit score and a subprime one. If you discover your credit score has fallen and you’re not sure why, your first step should be to request your credit reports and review them for errors.
Surprising Findings That Challenge the Age Narrative
Gen Z Is More Credit-Responsible Than Millennials Were
It’s easy to assume that younger consumers are more irresponsible with credit.
But that’s not what the data show. TransUnion’s “Solving for Z” study found that 50 percent of credit-active Gen Z consumers have prime or above credit scores, compared to just 39 percent of millennials at the same life stage. “We are finding that consumers in their 20s today are being more responsible with their credit than other generations were at the same age,” Experian analyst Jim Bander noted.
The issue for Gen Z isn’t behavior; it’s circumstance. When student loan delinquency reporting resumed in 2025, 2.2 million borrowers saw their credit scores fall by 100 points or more, with many borrowers never having been notified that student loan payments had resumed at all.
In Q4 2024, the serious delinquency rate on student loans was just 0.53 percent, but by Q1 2025 that number had skyrocketed to 7.74 percent, an increase of 841 percent.
Seniors Are the Fastest-Growing Debt Group in America
But it’s not safe to assume that older automatically means more creditworthy, either. Seniors are actually the fastest-growing group of debtors in America. Based on New York Fed data from Q1 2025, people aged 70 and older had the greatest five-year change in debt balances of any age group at 36.2 percent, and the largest year-over-year change at 4.22 percent.
Meanwhile, consumers between the ages of 18 and 29 were the only age group to reduce their total debt year-over-year.
That’s because seniors are taking on mortgages later into retirement, carrying auto loans to replace older cars, and being targeted by elder scams (the FBI reports seniors lost 3.4 billion to scams in 2023, while the FTC estimates the real number could be as high as 61.5 billion when including unreported losses). And a single scam-related collection account on a senior’s credit report could erase decades of credit management.
Debt, Delinquency, and the Real Drivers Behind Your Score
How Debt Loads Differ by Generation
Gen X has the highest debt load of any generation at 159,390 in total debt (that includes the highest average credit card balance of 9,600). Millennials follow at 132,280 in total debt, while Gen Z has a relatively modest 34,000. National consumer debt hit 18.33 trillion in 2025, up 3.2 percent from the prior year.
In 2025, Gen Z and Millennial credit card balances eclipsed credit card balances of Boomers and Silent Generation for the first time. Millennials now carry an average credit card balance of 6,961 versus Boomers at 6,795. This could be a sign of an increase in living costs for younger consumers as well as a natural decline in debt as Boomers age into retirement.
Delinquency Rates Tell the Uncomfortable Truth
Consumers between the ages of 18 and 29 have the highest serious delinquency rate at 3.35 percent, while consumers aged 70 and older have the lowest at 1.69 percent, according to New York Fed data from Q1 2025. Since 2021, credit card delinquencies have increased 48 percent for all age groups, auto loan delinquencies are up 24 percent, and mortgage delinquencies are up 58 percent.
But the trend lines are just as telling as the numbers. In 2024, VantageScore reported that the rate of delinquencies for Silent Generation, Boomer, and Gen X consumers were increasing at a faster rate than for Millennials, while Gen Z’s rate of delinquencies actually declined. The idea that older consumers are always more reliable isn’t holding up in real time.
What You Can Do If Your Score Does Not Match Your Age Group
Check Your Credit Reports for Errors First
The FTC has found one in five consumers had an error corrected by a credit reporting agency after filing a dispute, and five percent of consumers had errors that were severe enough to result in less favorable loan terms. Most people assume that if their credit score is low, it’s their fault.
Before you accept that your credit score is an accurate reflection of your credit history, get your three credit reports, and go through every account, balance, and payment history to make sure it’s accurate. Pay special attention to any collection accounts.
This is where debt collectors often report the wrong balance, the wrong date, or the wrong consumer altogether. You have the legal right under the FCRA to dispute anything on your credit report that you feel is inaccurate. The credit reporting agencies have 30 days to investigate and respond to your dispute.
How FightCollections.com Can Help
If you find mistakes, collection accounts you never heard of, or items that have passed the credit reporting time limit, trying to dispute them on your own can be a nightmare. The credit reporting agencies and debt collectors have staff whose full time job is to verify disputed accounts, and they don’t always play by the rules.
At FightCollections.com we specialize in identifying and disputing credit report information that’s inaccurate, misleading, or unverifiable.
Whether you’re a 23 year old establishing a credit history for the first time, and you have a mystery collection account dragging your credit score down, or you’re a 68 year old retiree who discovered an account fraudulently opened in your name, using an experienced credit advocate in your corner can be the difference between months of letters back and forth, and a resolution that actually corrects your credit report.
Conclusion
The Bigger Picture
The average credit score by age says a lot more than most people realize. While it’s true that the average credit score generally increases with age, it’s just as true that the reason for that trend is at least as much about how the credit scoring system is designed as it is about how individuals manage their finances.
The credit scoring system rewards longevity in the credit system, penalizes people with thin credit files, and can turn a single credit report mistake into years of higher interest rates and rejected applications. The 2025 average credit score data shows a changing credit picture.
For the first time in over a decade, the overall national average credit score is trending downward. The credit score middle class is disappearing, and everything from the resumption of student loan payments to ongoing high inflation is changing the generational credit score breakdown. But no matter what your credit score is, or where you fit into the age related data, the single most important factor you control when it comes to your credit score is the accuracy of your credit report.
Take Action on Your Credit Report Today
If your credit score doesn’t accurately reflect the good financial choices you’ve made, it may not be your fault. It may be a matter of what’s being reported about you. Mistakes, collection accounts that are too old to be reported, and credit report information that violates federal law can keep your credit score down at any age.
Come to FightCollections.com today and find out how our staff can help you review your credit reports for information you can dispute, and help you fight for corrections and removals of any information that’s reported inaccurately. Your credit score should accurately reflect your true financial situation, not the mistakes of debt collectors and credit reporting agencies.
