US Household Debt-to-GDP — Daily CSV Download (Household Leverage)
Household debt relative to GDP measures the leverage of American consumers — the engine of 70% of US GDP. The ratio peaked at 100% in 2008 before the subprime crisis, deleveraged to ~75% by 2019, and has been creeping back up since. It captures the structural credit cycle that drives housing, consumption, and ultimately recession risk.
Dataset: US Household Debt-to-GDP Ratio (1950–2026) · Updated —
Loading FRED data…
Source: FRED series HDTGPDUSQ163N · Federal Reserve — Financial Accounts (Z.1) via FRED
Macro Takeaway
This indicator is a key component of the macro-financial monitoring framework. Its current level relative to its historical distribution — captured in the percentile and z-score above — provides immediate context for whether conditions are historically normal, stretched, or compressed.
Cross-referencing with the 30-year mortgage rate and the consumer sentiment helps situate this indicator within the broader macro regime.
Dataset Overview
| Indicator | US Household Debt-to-GDP Ratio (1950–2026) |
|---|---|
| Geography | United States |
| Frequency | Quarterly |
| Period | 1950–2026 |
| Variables | date, household_debt_gdp_pct |
| Format | CSV, Excel (XLSX) |
| Sources | Federal Reserve — Financial Accounts (Z.1) via FRED |
| Last updated | — |
Dataset Variables
The CSV and Excel files contain the following columns.
| Column | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
date | Date (YYYY-MM-DD) | Observation date (quarterly) |
household_debt_gdp_pct | Float | Household debt as % of GDP |
Column names match the CSV headers exactly.
Download the Complete Dataset
The full dataset is available in CSV and Excel formats.
FRED Direct CSV Access
The underlying data is available from FRED under series code HDTGPDUSQ163N:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/fredgraph.csv?id=HDTGPDUSQ163N
Direct CSV Access — Eco3min Structured Dataset
https://eco3min.fr/dataset/household-debt-gdp.csv
This URL returns the complete dataset in CSV format. It can be used directly in pandas, R, curl, or any data tool.
Using the Dataset in Python
import pandas as pd url = "https://eco3min.fr/dataset/household-debt-gdp.csv" df = pd.read_csv(url, parse_dates=["date"]) print(df.head()) print(df["household_debt_gdp_pct"].describe())
Using the Dataset in R
library(readr) url <- "https://eco3min.fr/dataset/household-debt-gdp.csv" df <- read_csv(url) head(df) summary(df$household_debt_gdp_pct)
Both examples load the dataset directly from the URL — no download or API key required.
Methodology
FRED series HDTGPDUSQ163N provides household debt (mortgages, consumer credit, student loans) as a percentage of GDP directly. Source: BIS via FRED.
This dataset is updated quarterly via automated pull from the FRED API.
Historical Regimes
Historical regime analysis for this dataset will be added in a future update. The key stats block above provides immediate context for the current reading relative to the full historical distribution.
Related Macroeconomic Datasets
Household leverage is the slow-burning variable behind housing cycles and consumer spending. When debt-to-GDP is high, consumers are more sensitive to rate increases — and the transmission from monetary policy to consumption is faster and more painful.
- US Corporate Debt-to-GDP — The other half of private sector leverage
- 30-Year Mortgage Rate — The price of the largest component of household debt
- US Real Mortgage Rate — Inflation-adjusted cost of housing debt
- US Real Housing Price Index — Asset side of the household balance sheet
- US Consumer Sentiment — Behavioral response to leverage and debt burden
Related Research
Household debt intersects with the real interest rate regime — when real mortgage rates are negative, leverage builds; when they turn positive, deleveraging begins.
Macroeconomic Dataset Hub
This dataset is part of the Eco3min macro-financial data repository.
Explore the Eco3min Dataset Hub
Sources
- Federal Reserve — Financial Accounts (Z.1) via FRED