What Is the Average Credit Score?

Your credit score is a three-digit number that can have a huge impact on your life — determining whether you can score a cool place to live, get a loan for wheels to drive to work and get approved for credit cards that rack up points and miles.

So what’s the average score, and how does yours stack up? The average credit score is 715, according to the most recent data from Experian. Keep in mind that the average credit score varies by age and even by state, both important factors to consider when comparing your score to others.

Key takeaways

• Lenders use credit scoring to predict how likely you are to repay a loan on time.
• The average credit score was 715 in 2023, but it varies by your age and state.
• There are two main types of credit scores, the FICO Score and VantageScore, both ranging from 300 to 850.
• You can take simple steps to boost your credit score, starting with paying bills on time.

Average credit score by state

The average credit score varies widely by state. In 2023, Minnesota had the highest average credit score at 742, while Mississippi had the lowest average credit score at 680.

From 2022 to 2023, many states kept the same average credit scores or increased by a point or two. Only Alaska and the District of Columbia saw drops in their average credit scores, each losing one point.

Seven states — Kentucky, Maine, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia — saw the biggest jumps in average credit scores, with each of those states gaining three points.

Here’s a breakdown of the average credit score by state in 2022 and 2023:

Source: Experian data from Q3 of each year

Average credit score by age

The average credit score tends to increase with age, so Generation Z (18-26) has the lowest average credit score at 680, while the Silent Generation (78+) has the highest at 760. A number of factors likely comes into play to cause these generational differences.

First, older adults have had time to build credit and practice the responsible use of credit. Length of credit history is a factor in how your credit score is calculated, and older adults have had many more years to build up a long credit history. Credit scores also take into account your overall credit mix, and older borrowers have had more time to diversify their credit profiles.

Here’s a breakdown of the average credit score by age and generation:

Source: Experian data from Q3 of each year; ages as of 2023

What is a credit score?

A credit score is a three-digit number that shows lenders how likely you are to repay your debts on time. There are various credit scoring models, including FICO Score and VantageScore, which calculate a number ranging from 300 to 850 using the information on your credit reports.

The information that factors into a credit score includes:

• Your payment history
• Amounts owed
• Length of credit history
• Credit mix
• New credit

Your payment history and credit utilization ratio — that is, the percentage of your available credit that you’re using — are major factors. It’s wise to keep your utilization ratio below 30%. That means if you have one credit card with a $1,000 limit, you’d want to have a balance of no more than $300 at any given time.

Other positive factors include a longer credit history and a good mix of installment loans and revolving credit, such as having a mortgage, an auto loan and credit cards.

FICO Score vs. VantageScore

FICO Score and VantageScore are the two main types of credit scores used by lenders to make credit decisions. FICO Score ranges from 300 to 850, as do the most current versions of the VantageScore. It can take as long as six months of credit activity to get a FICO Score, while a VantageScore is created as soon as your first credit account is opened.

FICO Score

FICO Score was created by Fair Isaac Corporation (originally Fair, Isaac and Company) in 1989 and is used by about 90% of all lenders. FICO Score has different versions that are used for various types of lending.

For example, FICO Scores 8 and 9 are the most widely used versions, FICO Bankcard is used for credit cards, FICO Auto Score is used for auto loans and FICO Scores 2,4 and 5 are used for mortgage lending.

While versions of the score vary slightly, all FICO Scores use the same factors to determine your creditworthiness. These include:

• Payment history (35%)
• Amounts owed (30%)
• Length of credit history (15%)
• Credit mix (10%)
• New credit (10%)

As you can see, paying your bills on time and keeping your amounts owed down are two of the most important actions you can take to have a good FICO Score.

Here is a breakdown of the ranges of FICO Scores:

VantageScore

VantageScore was created in 2006 by the three major credit bureaus and is used by more than 3,400 financial institutions to make credit decisions. The credit bureaus, Experian, Equifax and TransUnion, introduced VantageScore to address behavioral and data collection trends. However, it is not nearly as widely used as FICO scoring.

The factors that make up your VantageScore include:

• Payment history (40%)
• Credit age and mix (21%)
• Credit utilization (20%)
• Amounts owed (11%)
• Recent credit behavior (5%)
• Available credit (3%)

Your payment history has the most influence on your VantageScore while recent credit behavior and available credit have the least impact.

Here are the credit ranges of VantageScore:

How to improve your credit score

Once you know how your score compares to the average, you may want to boost your numbers to increase your approval odds and score the best possible interest rates on credit cards and loans. Here are five ways to improve your credit scores:

• Check your credit reports. Credit errors are surprisingly common, with nearly half of consumers finding errors in their credit reports. Visit AnnualCreditReport.com to get a free weekly online credit report from the three major bureaus. Check your credit reports and contact the credit bureau to dispute credit report errors that may be weighing down your score.
• Pay down your debt. If you’re carrying credit card debt, try to pay down your balances to less than 30% of your available credit. Learn how to prioritize debt for repayment so you pay it off in the order that benefits you most.
• Always pay your bills on time. Consider setting up autopay on your credit cards and loans so you never miss a payment. Then set an alert to manually pay more if you’re planning to pay off your whole balance or pay down that debt.
• Keep older accounts open. If you’re considering closing an old credit card you got in college because you never use it anymore, stop. Consider keeping the account open to boost the length of your credit history on your account. You can use it for small purchases just to keep it active.
• Mix up your credit. If you only have one type of credit, such as credit cards, consider opening a new type of credit. While you don’t want to take a loan you don’t need, keep in mind that an installment loan, auto loan or mortgage could round out your credit mix and improve your score.