The average credit score in every state — how do you stack up?

The average U.S. credit score is 715, according to FICO's Score Credit Insights, which examined data from April 2025. That's still in the "good" range, but it represents a two-point drop year-over-year — the largest decline since the Great Recession.

Persistent inflation and a sluggish job market have forced many Americans to rely more on credit to cover expenses. As a result, credit utilization has increased and on-time payments have decreased — both of which lower credit scores.

"Earlier this year, the percentage of credit card balances that were 90 days or more delinquent reached the highest level since the second quarter of 2011," Credit Sesame analyst Richard Barrington told CNBC Select. 

Mounting student loan debt is another contributor: After a 3-year moratorium and a 12-month "on-ramp period," during which student loan borrowers were protected from negative credit reporting and collections, delinquencies began to be reported to credit bureaus again in January.

Those partial or missed payments are now impacting scores: In April, just under a third of student loan borrowers (5.8 million) were 90 days or more past due, according to an analysis from TransUnion, marking the largest percentage on record.

"A person's payment history represents the single biggest component of credit scores," Barrington said. "So if you're falling behind on your student loan payments, you're killing your credit score."

• Read: The beginner's guide to credit scores

FICO's analysis points to a deepening divide among consumers: The bracket with middle-range credit scores (600–749) shrank from 38% in 2021 to 33.8% in 2025. In the same time frame, the percentage in the "excellent" range (800-850) rose from 23.3% to 24.8% and the percentage in the "poor" range (300-549) jumped from 7.2% to 12.1%.

Says Barrington, "Scores are increasingly becoming split between the haves and the have-nots." 

That's apparent when you look at credit scores by state, which range from lows of 677 in Mississippi and 687 in Louisiana to highs of 738 in New Hampshire and 739 in Wisconsin. 

Barrington draws a link between credit scores and a state's median income and employment rates. According to the St. Louis Fed, Mississippi's real median household income is $55,980 and Louisiana's is $60,740 — the country's lowest and second-lowest, respectively.

In contrast, New Hampshire's median household income is $111,000, the second-highest after Massachusetts.

Wisconsin and New Hampshire also have some of the lowest unemployment rates in the country, at 3.1% and 3.0% respectively. In comparison, Mississippi has a 3.9% unemployment rate and ranks 28th for employment nationwide, while Louisiana ranks 38th with a rate of 4.4%.

If you're not happy with your score, there are several steps you can take to improve it. On-time payment history accounts for 35% of your FICO Score, the largest chunk. So paying your bills on time is the best way to boost your score.

"Get your budget to where it's not reliant on continued borrowing," Barrington said. "You want room every month to make on-time debt payments."

He suggests paying off high-interest debts first.

"More of each subsequent payment will go toward principal rather than interest, which gives you more bang for your buck," he said.

Another technique is to lower your credit utilization ratio, or the percentage of your available credit that you're using, which accounts for another 30% of your score. Paying down debts is the surest way to lower your ratio, but if funds are tight, you can also request a credit limit increase on one of your cards.

"If you don't touch that extra credit, raising your limit will lower your overall debt utilization," said Jim Droske, president of Illinois Credit Services.

Reviewing your credit reports can also raise your score. Nearly half (44%) of participants in a 2024 Consumer Reports study found mistakes on their reports from Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Of them, 27% said the errors could have negatively impacted their score, including debts that didn't belong to them, accounts they never opened and incorrect reports of late or missed payments.

You can request a free weekly report from all three bureaus at AnnualCreditReport.com. Improving your score can unlock credit card approvals, lower interest rates and even better housing and jobs.

"You need to think about your credit score as more than an abstract three-digit number," Barrington saidd. "Think of it as a financial resource and manage it."

At CNBC Select, we work with experts who have specialized knowledge and authority based on relevant training and/or experience. For this story, we interviewed Jim Droske, president of Illinois Credit Services and a credit scoring expert with nearly 30 years of experience.

We also interviewed Richard Barrington, a financial analyst at Credit Sesame. A Chartered Financial Analyst and graduate of St. John Fisher College in Rochester, New York, Barrington previously worked at the investment management firm Manning & Napier Advisors and has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, CNBC and many other publications.

At CNBC Select, our mission is to deliver high-quality service journalism and comprehensive consumer advice to our readers, enabling them to make informed financial decisions. Every personal finance article is based on rigorous reporting by our team of expert writers and editors with extensive knowledge of credit products. While CNBC Select earns a commission from affiliate partners on many offers and links, we create all our content independently of our commercial team and any outside third parties, and we pride ourselves on maintaining high journalistic standards and ethics.

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