Consumer debt statistics: just how bad is it?

We hear about consumer debt statistics in the news every day, but often the words and numbers just wash over us. It's difficult to actually understand the quantities you hear and the more we hear them the more blasé we become.

We've all got so used to hearing the numbers that they're actually quite meaningless. Well, this article's about bringing the figures to reality.

The figures below are from creditaction.org, an organisation that compiles monthly consumer debt statistics. Don't take the figures lightly, think about what they say and try to imagine the actual amounts they're talking about.

Let's start off small with these consumer debt statistics from January 2010:

The average household in the UK had £8,939 worth of debt. This figure is just for unsecured loans such as credit cards, store cards or car loans. This increases to £18,623 when you look at those households that have debt and don't average it out against all households. These two figures don't include mortgage amounts, but if you add this in then this consumer debt statistic rises to £58,040.

If you took all the debt in the country and assigned it to each person, then every UK adult would owe £30,306 including mortgages.

Looking at the country as a whole, and this is where the figures really start to sound fantastical; the total personal debt in the UK at the end of January 2010 was £1,463bn. Not million, but billion. Do you know how many zeros that is? Can you imagine that amount of money? Luckily it's been slowing over the last few years, which shows we've been tightening our belts and not spending so much.

The amount of loans that have been taken out on dwellings, i.e. secured loans, was £1,237bn at the end of January.

The total amount of consumer credit lending to individuals was £225bn at the end of September and although the rate of this growth is beginning to fall, the figure is still increasing. We're still getting into debt and taking out loans, but not quite as much as we were.

Debt statistics at a glance:

• Every 11.4 minutes a house is repossessed
• The average household debt is £50,040
• 9500 new debt problems are dealt with by the CAB every day
• £187m is paid daily in the UK in personal interest

On a positive note, you're here because you want to take control of your finances. Whether you're paying off debt, saving for a holiday or readjusting your lifestyle, you'll find all the help you need to start budgeting and getting one step closer to your goal, right here.