India’s households, long regarded as cautious savers, are quietly taking on record lev-els of debt. According to the Reserve Bank of India’s Financial Stability Report, household debt in India was 42% of the GDP at the end of 2024, up from just 26% in 2015. Which means that in absolute terms the total debt is nearly three times bigger. The average debt per individual has jumped 23% in just two years.

This means the average debt per person is rising at twice the speed of national income. It has risen from Rs 3.9 lakh in 2023 to Rs 4.8 lakh by March 2025. More than half of this borrow-ing, i.e., about 55%, comes from non-housing retail loans such as credit card dues, personal loans, auto loans, and gold loans, while traditional home loans make up on-ly about 29% of total household debt.

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