Seven official series scored by percentile against their own 2019-now range, weighted into one 0-100 dial. Methodology on the page; inputs never black-boxed. Below the dial, the consumer balance sheet under a microscope: Fed G.19 balances, commercial-bank delinquency rates for cards, autos and mortgages, and the household debt-service ratios, with full history — cards lead, autos follow, mortgages last.
The Consumer Stress Index is one number for how squeezed US households are, built from 7 official series. Each input is scored 0–100 by where its latest value sits within its own range since January 2019 (the percentile), flipped where a lower value means more stress (the saving rate), and the composite is the weighted mean: card delinquency 20%, card APR 15%, saving rate 15%, debt service 15%, revolving-credit growth 15%, mortgage delinquency 10%, continuing claims 10%. Zero is the most comfortable the consumer has been since 2019, 100 the most stressed. This is version 1 of the construction; any change ships in the public changelog.
Recomputed from the same series snapshots the page reads, the composite is 60 today.
| Input | Latest | As of | Range since 2019 | Score (0–100) | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Credit card delinquency rate | 2.85% | Q2 2026 | 1.53% to 3.22% | 62 | 20% |
| Mortgage delinquency rate | 1.86% | Q2 2026 | 1.7% to 2.84% | 48 | 10% |
| Average credit card APR | 21.19% | August 1, 2026 | 14.51% to 21.76% | 73 | 15% |
| Personal saving rate | 4.1% | August 1, 2026 | 2.4% to 31.8% | 90 | 15% |
| Debt service / disposable income | 11.11% | Q2 2026 | 9.05% to 11.73% | 62 | 15% |
| Revolving credit growth (YoY) | 3.37% | August 1, 2026 | -12.58% to 15.39% | 41 | 15% |
| Continuing jobless claims | 1,710k | October 3, 2026 | 1,344k to 23,130k | 26 | 10% |
Delinquencies are the stress reading proper: cards go delinquent first, auto loans follow, mortgages last, and the 2008 sequence is the reference pattern. The card APR is the price of carrying a balance; combined with growth in revolving balances above income growth it means consumption is being borrowed. The saving rate is the cushion — a falling rate with flat real income is a household spending down its margin. The debt-service ratio is the share of after-tax income going to required payments; it is low by history because most mortgages were fixed near 3%, so the card side is what moves it. Continuing claims say how long the unemployed stay out of work.
Total consumer credit was growing 2.73% year over year in August 2026, revolving (card) balances 3.37%. The delinquency rate on all loans at commercial banks was 1.42% in Q2 2026. Mortgage debt service took 5.83% of disposable income in Q2 2026. Sources: Federal Reserve G.19 consumer credit, the commercial-bank delinquency tables and the household debt-service ratios, and the Department of Labor's claims, all via FRED; each input has its own page in the series directory.
Stress is the demand side of the inflation picture. With the Gauge at 3.45% and official CPI at 3.7%, a rising dial means households are absorbing price increases with credit rather than income, which cannot persist; a falling dial with prices still rising means wages or transfers are keeping pace. The system-level backdrop — whether money is loose or tight — is the financial-conditions section of the recession-risk page; this dial is how it lands on households.