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What percentage of American adults have debt from medical care they or their family received?

18.3% of American adults have debt from medical care they or their family received - about 18 in every 100, or 2 in 10. That is the figure published by the Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking for 2025.

0 in 100100 in 100
18.3

Where this number comes from

Survey
Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking
What it measured
SHED 2025 item E2B (“Do you currently have any debt from medical care you or your family members have received?”), counting responses 1=Yes. Computed from the Federal Reserve's public-use microdata with its post-stratification weight WEIGHT. The public file has no design variables or replicate weights, so the standard error follows the Fed's documented design effect: SE = √(deff · p(1−p)/n), deff = 1.144 (the Fed's 1.14, or the Kish design effect of these weights if larger); unweighted n = 12,934.
Population
U.S. adults aged 18 and over
Year
2025
95% confidence interval
17.59% to 19.01% (derived from the published standard error)

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, public-use data (doi:10.17016/datasets.002). Percentages computed here, with attribution.. See the source data

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