HONOLULU (KHON2) — Americans, including residents of Hawaiʻi, are swimming in debt with one in three Americans saying that their health is being negatively impacted by it.

With new tariffs disrupting the United States economy, debt is not going to be relieved any time soon.

A new report indicates that the total amount of money people owe over time is increasing stress and health problems.

The report is split into different sections that discuss “credit card debt” and “other debt” from 2003 to 2024. It shows how much money people have borrowed each year, quarter by quarter.

It also illustrates how this debt changes from one year to the next and how people’s debt compares to previous years.

Part 1: Total credit card debt

Credit card debt is money people owe when they buy things using a credit card. The total amount of credit card debt changed a lot from year to year.

In 2024, the total was $889 billion by the end of the year. It went up and down each quarter, but it was generally lower compared to the same periods in previous years.

For example, in Q1 2024, the credit card debt was higher than in Q1 2023 but lower than in Q1 2022.

• Hawaiʻi is mentioned because people in Hawaiʻi are included in this overall credit card debt report. This means people from Hawaiʻi, like everyone else, are part of the trend in credit card borrowing.

People tend to owe more money in the summer months (like Q2 and Q3), but this decreases in winter (like Q4).

Over the years, there were big jumps in debt, especially during times of crisis, like the global financial crisis in 2008 or the pandemic in 2020, when people borrowed more money to cover their expenses.

Part 2: Other debt

“Other debt” includes money that people owe but not on credit cards, like personal loans or car loans.

This debt has also been changing over time. In 2024, the total for other debt was about $554 billion.

Just like with credit card debt, the amount of other debt goes up and down each quarter; and it’s lower than it was in 2023 or 2022.

For example, in Q1 2024, there was a 465% increase compared to the last quarter; but a decrease when compared to the same quarter two years ago.

Part 3: How debt changes over time

The report compares debt from one year to another. Sometimes people owe a lot more than the year before, and other times they owe less.

For example, in 2023, people owed $570 billion in total by the end of the year. This was more than in 2022, but less than in 2021. These numbers show that the amount of debt is always changing based on how much people borrow each year.

Part 4: Comparing debt to previous quarters

The report also compares debt in one quarter to the one before it. For example, in Q4 2024, the debt increased by $7 billion compared to Q3 2024.

Some quarters showed an increase in debt, while others showed a decrease. These changes are marked with green (when debt went down) and red (when debt went up). This helps show how people’s borrowing habits change from one quarter to the next.

Part 5: Important economic events

Certain events in the economy made people borrow more or less money. In 2008, during the global financial crisis, people’s debt went up a lot because many people were struggling financially.

The pandemic in 2020 also caused people to borrow more money. During these times, people needed extra money to help with things like paying bills and buying food when jobs were lost or people had to stay home.

Part 6: Key trends in debt

There are a few important things we can learn from this report:

• Debt went up and down a lot depending on what was happening in the economy, like during the financial crisis or the pandemic.
• Some years had huge changes, like in 2020 when the pandemic started, and in 2008 during the financial crisis.
• Credit card debt and other types of debt, like loans, both changed in similar ways from year to year.
• People’s borrowing habits are affected by things like their income, job situation, and how the economy is doing.

Part 7: Debt by region (including Hawaiʻi)

The report looks at how debt is spread out across different regions. Hawaiʻi is one of those regions; and it’s mentioned that people in Hawaiʻi, like those in other states, have also seen changes in their debt over the years.

This shows that debt trends are not just in one place but happen all across the country, including Hawaiʻi.

This report shows how much money people have borrowed over time, including credit card debt and other loans.

It highlights how these amounts change each quarter and year, depending on different factors like economic crises or changes in how people spend their money.

You can click here to read the full report.

The trend shows that debt can go up and down, with big changes in times of financial struggles, like the global financial crisis and the pandemic. People in Hawaiʻi and other regions are also part of these trends.