Average Credit Score by Age: How Do You Compare?
The average credit score rises with every generation, but not because older people are better with money. Here is the by-age breakdown, and why the gap is mostly about time.
The average credit score climbs steadily with age, from about 678 for Gen Z to 760 for the Silent Generation, with the overall US average sitting around 715. But before you measure yourself against those numbers, here is the part almost nobody says out loud: that climb is mostly about time, not virtue. Older generations do not have higher scores because they are wiser with money. They have higher scores because they have had credit accounts open for decades, and the scoring system quietly rewards that above almost everything else.
Average credit score by age
Here are the most recent figures, from Experian’s analysis of average FICO scores by generation:
| Generation (age in 2025) | Average FICO score |
|---|---|
| Gen Z (18–28) | 678 |
| Millennials (29–44) | 689 |
| Gen X (45–60) | 709 |
| Baby Boomers (61–79) | 747 |
| Silent Generation (80+) | 760 |
The staircase is remarkably consistent: every older bracket outscores the one below it. Notably, Gen Z and millennials actually slipped in 2025, partly as student-loan payments and interest resumed for millions of borrowers after pandemic-era relief wound down. Gen X and boomers held steady or ticked up. That pattern, younger scores under pressure while older scores drift higher, is the whole story of how credit works in one snapshot.
Why the numbers climb with age
Two of the five scoring factors are basically impossible to fake with youth: the length of your credit history and, to some degree, your credit mix. Someone who opened their first card at 20 and kept it open has a 40-year history by their sixties. A 24-year-old simply cannot manufacture that, no matter how responsible they are. The average by age is, to a large extent, just a chart of who has had more time.
That is worth sitting with if you are young and staring at a below-average number. It usually is not a verdict on your habits. It is a verdict on your calendar.
Why I was “average” despite never missing a payment
When I finally checked mine, I landed right in the average range, and it annoyed me. My only accounts were a couple of car loans and a student loan. I had never missed a payment in my life. But because I had spent years paying for everything with a debit card, I had almost no revolving history, and the system read that thin file as unremarkable.
Meanwhile, I had friends with noticeably higher scores who were not one bit more responsible than me. They just happened to open a credit card years earlier and, frankly, knew how to play the game, keeping old accounts open and their balances low. Same financial discipline, very different number, purely because of history.
The credit system does not really score how good you are with money. It scores how long you have been visibly borrowing it and paying it back. Those are not the same thing, and pretending they are is the system’s biggest flaw.
What the average actually means for you
Do not turn the average into a target. Here is the more useful way to read it:
- A good score is good at any age. 670+ is good, 740+ is very good, full stop. You do not need to beat your generation’s average to be in great shape.
- Below average and young is normal. It almost always means a short history, not bad behavior. Time fixes this as long as you pay on time.
- Above average is not a finish line. Once you are comfortably in the good range, chasing an extra 20 points rarely changes what you qualify for.
If you are behind the average for your age, the fix is not clever. It is patience plus consistency: keep your oldest account open, pay everything on time, keep balances low, and let the years do what only years can.
Where to go next
- The realistic version: how long does it take to build credit.
- Start from zero the right way: how to build credit from scratch.
- Why your score varies by app: is Credit Karma accurate?.
- Don’t let balances drag the number down: how to pay off credit card debt.
For the underlying data and how the averages shift year to year, Experian publishes the generational breakdown, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau explains what goes into the number in plain English.
Frequently asked questions
What is the average credit score by age?
Based on the most recent Experian data, average FICO scores by generation are roughly: Gen Z (18-28) around 678, Millennials (29-44) around 689, Gen X (45-60) around 709, Baby Boomers (61-79) around 747, and the Silent Generation (80+) around 760. The overall US average is about 715.
What is a good credit score for my age?
A good score is a good score at any age: 670 or above is considered good, and 740+ is very good, regardless of how old you are. Younger people tend to sit lower simply because they have shorter credit histories, not because a different standard applies to them.
Why do older people have higher credit scores?
Mostly because of time. Length of credit history is a real scoring factor, and older people have had accounts open for decades. They have also usually had longer to recover from early mistakes and to build a mix of credit. It is less about being better with money and more about having more history.
Is my credit score good if it is below average for my age?
Possibly, yes. Average is not the same as good. If you are young and below the generational average but still above 670, your credit is in good shape. A below-average score mostly signals a thin or short history, which time and consistent on-time payments will fix.
