Are Credit Scores in Your State Above or Below Average?
by Christy Bieber | Updated July 21, 2021 - First published on Dec. 28, 2019
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How does your state stack up to the average?
Across America, credit scores have been steadily climbing to the point where the average American now has pretty good credit.
As recent research from The Ascent on average credit scores shows, however, there are wide variations from one state to the next. In fact, there's more than a 61 point difference between the state with the highest average credit score (Minnesota) and the state with the lowest one (Mississippi).
So where does your state fall when it comes to average credit scores? Read on to find out.
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Credit scores in these states are above average
The average VantageScore in 2018 in America was 694. Since a VantageScore between 661 and 780 is considered to be a good score, this means the average American has a credit score to be proud of. However, residents of certain states beat out this average and did even better.
Just 15 states had average scores equal to or above the nationwide average:
- Colorado (694)
- Connecticut (694)
- Hawaii (697)
- Iowa (700)
- Massachusetts (703)
- Minnesota (713)
- Montana (695)
- North Dakota (703)
- Nebraska (701)
- New Hampshire (704)
- Oregon (695)
- South Dakota (707)
- Vermont (705)
- Washington State (699)
- Wisconsin (701)
Credit scores in these states are below average
All of the rest of the states had average VantageScores below 694. In most cases, though, these scores were still pretty close to the nationwide average. And in the majority of locales, average scores still fell within the "good" range.
In fact, only Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, Oklahoma, and Texas had average scores that were classified as fair, rather than good.
Here are the scores for the states with below-average VantageScores:
- Alabama (660)
- Alaska (675)
- Arizona (673)
- Arkansas (661)
- California (685)
- Delaware (679)
- District of Columbia (676)
- Florida (674)
- Georgia (659)
- Idaho (688)
- Illinois (687)
- Indiana (675)
- Kansas (685)
- Kentucky (668)
- Louisiana (653)
- Maine (692)
- Maryland (678)
- Michigan (682)
- Mississippi (652)
- Missouri (678)
- Nevada (659)
- New Jersey (691)
- New Mexico (664)
- New York (692)
- North Carolina (670)
- Ohio (681)
- Oklahoma (660)
- Pennsylvania (691)
- Rhode Island (690)
- South Carolina (662)
- Tennessee (666)
- Texas (659)
- Utah (691)
- Virginia (684)
- West Virginia (662)
- Wyoming (685)
Help your state boost its average by improving your credit
Unless you have a perfect credit score, there's room to boost your score and help bring up your state's average.
You can do this by working to repay debt to reduce your credit utilization ratio; by making sure you have a good mix of different kinds of credit; by always paying every bill on time; and by avoiding behaviors that reduce your score, such as taking on too much new credit at once or maxing out your credit cards.
Of course, while you want to do your part to make sure your state's average score is a good one, you're the person that benefits the most from having great credit. You owe it to yourself to do everything you can to try to earn the score you need to open up the door to affordable borrowing.
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About the Author
Christy Bieber is a personal finance and legal writer with more than a decade of experience. Her work has been featured on major outlets including MSN Money, CNBC, and USA Today.
We're firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers. The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.
