£63,528 Average total debt per UK household in December 2021
£2,112 Average credit card debt per household in December 2021
£3,745 Total unsecured debt per UK adult in December 2021
0.5% Change in outstanding credit card balances in year to December 2021
0.4 pence per litre Decrease in the price of unleaded petrol in January 2022
5.5% Inflation rate in the year to January 2022
9.9% Increase in average first-time buyer house price in the year to December 2021
20 years Time to save for a first-time buyer house deposit, saving at the average rate out of average UK income (at July to September 2021 rate of household saving)
UK Personal Debt
People in the UK owed £1,765.6 billion at the end of December 2021.
This is up by £64.2 billion from £1,701.4 billion at the end of December 2020, an extra £1,212.93 per UK adult over the year.
The average total debt per household, including mortgages, was £63,528.
Per adult this was £33,328, around 108.7% of average earnings. This is up from the revised £33,306 a month earlier.
Based on December 2021 numbers, the UK’s total interest payments on personal debt over a 12-month period would have been £44,508 million, an average of £122 million per day.
The average annual interest per household would have been £1,601 and per person £842, 2.74% of average earnings.
According to the Office for Budget Responsibility’s October 2021 forecast, household debt of all types is forecast to rise from £2,004 billion in 2020 to £2,363 billion in 2025.
This would make the average total household debt £82,957 (assuming household numbers track ONS population projections).
At the end of December 2021, outstanding consumer credit lending was £198.1 billion, falling by £443 million on the revised total for the previous month.
Within the total, outstanding credit card debt came to £58.7 billion, a decrease of 0.5% in the year to December 2021. Credit card debt averaged £2,112 per household and £1,110 per adult.
A credit card on the average interest would take 25 years and 1 month to repay, making only the legal minimum repayments each month.
The minimum repayment in the first month would be £56 but would reduce each month. If £56 were paid every month, the debt would be cleared in around 5 years and 1 month.
Total net lending to individuals and housing associations by UK banks and building societies grew by £4.0 billion in December 2021 or £129 million a day over revised figures for November 2021.
Net mortgage lending rose by £3.57 billion in the month, while net consumer credit lending increased by £233 million.
In Q3 2021 lenders wrote off £982 million (of which £335 million was credit card debt, amounting to a daily write-off of £3.6 million.)
Everyday in the UK
The population of the UK grew by an estimated 777 people a day between 2019 and 2020.
On average, a UK household spends £4.28 a day on water, electricity and gas.
286 people a day were declared insolvent or bankrupt in England or Wales in November 2021 to January 2022. This was equivalent to one person every 5 minutes and 2 seconds.
In Northern Ireland in January 2022, there were 3.2 insolvencies per day. In Scotland in the three months to December 2021 there were 22.4 insolvencies per day.
Citizens Advice Bureaux in England and Wales dealt with 1,970 debt issues every day in the year to January 2022.
4.2 properties were repossessed every day in October to December 2021 in the UK, or one every 5 hours and 40 minutes.
The number of UK mortgages with arrears of over 2.5% of the remaining balance fell by 11.7 a day in the year to December 2021.
The number of people unemployed in the UK fell by 1,088 per day in the twelve months to December 2021.
783 people a day reported they had become redundant in October to December 2021.
Net lending to individuals and housing associations in the UK grew by £129 million a day in December 2021.
Government debt increased by £275 million a day in the year to January 2022.
Borrowers paid £122 million a day in interest in December 2021.
It costs an average of £24.44 per day for a couple to raise a child from birth to the age of 18.
For a lone parent family, the cost of raising a child comes to £29.50 per day.
27.9 mortgage possession claims and 18.0 mortgage possession orders were made every day in England and Wales in October to December 2021.
157 landlord possession claims and 74.4 landlord possession orders were made every day.