2 California cities top list of highest credit card debt in U.S.

Americans are in debt — $1.35 trillion in total last year.

Some U.S. cities have residents who are in more debt than others. A study by WalletHub, a personal finance company, found that Santa Clarita, California, has the highest credit card debt per household so far this year.

WalletHub analyzed data from TransUnion in 181 cities to determine which cities had the highest and lowest debt per household.

Of the top 10 cities with the most debt, six are in California: Santa Clarita (No. 1), Chula Vista (No. 2), Fontana (No. 4), Riverside (No. 5), Rancho Cucamonga (No. 7) and Glendale (No. 10).

The other four cities with the most debt are New York City (3); Pearl City, Hawaii (6); Chesapeake, Virginia (8), and Gilbert, Arizona (9).

The total household debt for those cities ranges between $18,500 and $22,700.

Lewiston, Maine, has the lowest amount of credit card debt per household at $9,500.

The second lowest is Toledo, Ohio, at $9,600.

The 10 cities with the lowest credit card debt are primarily in Iowa, Wisconsin and Ohio. The cities that round out the list are Madison, Wisconsin (3); Cleveland, Ohio (4); Akron, Ohio (5); Cedar Rapids, Iowa (6); Milwaukee (7); Des Moines, Iowa (8); Rochester, New York (9), and Fort Wayne, Indiana (10).

Last month, a Bankrate survey revealed that 33% of adults in the United States have more credit card debt than emergency savings, down from 36% in 2024 and 2023, Nexstar’s NewsNation reported.

According to Bankrate’s 2025 Emergency Savings Report, this year’s percentage is still higher than in 2022, when 22% of Americans had more credit card debt than emergency savings.