Americans are carrying around an average of $29,800 in personal debt, and that does not include mortgages, according to findings from Northwestern Mutual's 2019 Planning & Progress Study.
Even so, that figure represents an improvement over last year when U.S. adults reported an average of $38,000 in personal debt, the study noted.
Northwestern Mutual found that among the generations, Gen X reported the highest levels of personal debt with $36,000 on average. Baby Boomers followed with $28,600, millennials have $27,900 and Gen Zers are holding an average debt of $14,700.
And while respondents indicated that a little over a third (34%) of their monthly income goes toward paying off debt, the same, one-in-three Americans (34%), are unsure how much of their monthly income goes toward paying off their debt.
One-fifth (20%) of U.S. adults are not even sure how much debt they have.
Mortgages and credit cards are the leading sources of debt for most Americans, according to the study, equally at 22%. Nine percent said car loans have put them in debt and eight percent listed personal loans as their source of debt.
Millennials cited credit card bills as their main source of debt (25%), while Gen Z said theirs is personal education loans (20%). And both Gen Xers (30%) and Baby Boomers (28%) listed mortgages as their leading source of debt, followed by credit card bills (at 24% and 18% respectively).
The study also pointed out that the personal debt crisis has widespread implications. Forty-five percent of Americans say debt makes them feel anxiety on at least a monthly basis and 35% report feeling guilt at least monthly as a result of the debt they're carrying. Moreover, one in five (20%) indicated that debt makes them feel physically ill at least once a month.
The 2019 Planning & Progress Study included 2,003 American adults aged 18 or older in the general population and an oversample of 281 U.S. adults age 18-22.